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| Much of
life can never be explained but only witnessed... |
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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, then forced back to shore
when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December
26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.
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| "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. |
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| "After it was swept
and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look
for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed
on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat
and sleep together," the ecologist added. "The hippo
follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If
somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive,
as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added. |
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| "The hippo
is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature,
hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers
for four years," he explained. |
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Life is not
measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away. |
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This is a real story that shows that our differences
don't matter much when we need the comfort of another. |
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Save the Earth...
it's the only planet with chocolate |
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Share This Story
with a Friend
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