posted January 23, 2005 07:14 PM         

of his shell thanks to the love of a 120-year-old tortoise.

Owen, a 300kg, one-year-old hippo, was swept down the Sabaki River,
into the ocean and then back to shore when the giant waves struck the Kenyan
coast.

The dehydrated hippo was found by wildlife rangers and taken to the
Haller Park animal facility in the port city of Mombasa.

Pining for his lost mother, Owen quickly befriended a giant male
Aldabran tortoise named Mzee - Swahili for "old man".

"When we released Owen into the enclosure, he lumbered to the tortoise
which has a dark grey colour similar to grown up hippos," Sabine Baer,
rehabilitation and ecosystems manager at the park, told Reuters on
Thursday.

Haller Park ecologist Paula Kahumbu said the pair were now inseparable.

"After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatised. 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.

"The hippo was left at a very tender age. Hippos are social animals
that like to stay with their mothers for four years."

She said the hippo's chances of survival in another herd were very
slim, predicting that a dominant male would have killed him.

Officials are hopeful Owen will befriend a female hippo called Cleo,
also a resident at the park.

--australian mx

posted January 23, 2005 07:53 PM         

I LOVE that last picture. So cute. Poor baby. What a wise, loving turtle.

posted January 23, 2005 08:19 PM         

Thank-you mr.tortoise for taking in the lost hippo!!

posted June 11, 2005 01:15 AM         

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