Crafting Gentleness

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Hippossibilities

I was just reminded of the following story from a couple of years ago ...

Tsunami-orphaned hippo adopted by 100-year old tortoise
AFPAugust 19, 2005

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, and then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.

http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0819-hippo_tortoise.html

2 Comments:

  • Read more about Owen & Mzee at their blog:

    http://www.lafargeecosystems.com

    Join the Owen & Mzee Yahoo Group at:

    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Owen-and-Mzee_Group

    See Owen & Mzee Movie trailer:

    http://tinyurl.com/oxomy

    Author's website will launch soon:

    http://www.owenandmzee.com

    By Blogger Jimbo, at Tuesday, 13 February, 2007  

  • Thanks for the links, Jimbo! It's a heartening story.

    And I hadn't realised till now that the reserve where Owen and Mzee struck up their unlikely friendship was created by Lafarge, the company whose change of heart gave victory to the campaigners against the planned superquarry on Harris.

    By Blogger Dougald Hine, at Thursday, 15 February, 2007  

Post a Comment

<< Home