Heartbreaking: Turtle adopts orphaned baby hippo
Created: 06/30/2022, 10:18 am
By: Bona Hyun
A young hippo loses its herd in a natural disaster.
Miraculously, it meets a turtle - which promptly takes on the role of mother.
Kenya – A baby hippo was left to fend for itself very early on: A natural disaster separated the cub from its herd and family.
Rescuers eventually found it washed ashore, weakened, and took it to a wildlife park.
There it found refuge with a male turtle over 100 years old.
Mzee, as the armored animal is called, immediately became a foster father.
A dog that adopted little baby rabbits and a Dalmatian that adopted a spotted lamb without a mother also proved that cross-species love between animals happens again and again.
An unusual but profound friendship also developed between the hippopotamus and the turtle, as reported by kreiszeitung.de.
East African country: | Kenya |
Capital city: | Nairobi |
Population: | 53.77 million (2020) |
World Bank Currency: | Kenya shilling |
Turtle adopts an orphaned baby hippo - their friendship is deeply touching
Baby hippo Owen tragically lost his herd and family.
Local residents rescued the helpless animal that had been washed ashore after a natural disaster.
The baby animal lay on the shore, completely dehydrated and weak.
This was reported by the news agency Reuters.
Rescuers took the orphaned hippo to a local wildlife park and christened the hippo Owen.
Turtle Mzee was also housed in the same zoo.
Turtle Mzee becomes the foster father and family surrogate for the baby hippopotamus after the cub loses its herd.
© epa/dpa
Hippopotamus Owen was immediately drawn to the 100-year-old turtle because it was the same dark gray coloring as adult hippos.
Zoo staff report that the tortoise has taken on parental roles for Owen since he arrived at the park.
At first, the male turtle didn't know what to do with the baby hippo - Mzee even hissed at him, but immediately after that the unlikely team grew into an inseparable duo.
Who would have thought that friendship and caring would go so far that a male turtle would become a foster father to a hippopotamus?
Baby hippo loses family in tsunami - finds refuge with 100-year-old turtle
Turtle Mzee and the baby hippopotamus have now become real allies.
The Aldabra giant tortoise eats and sleeps next to Owen.
"Ever since Owen got here, the turtle has been acting like his mama.
The hippopotamus follows the turtle and licks its face," one of the park's employees was quoted as saying by the Independent.
The baby hippo would long for a family very much - and found both a father figure and herd surrogate in one with the turtle grandpa.
Soon hippo Owen became Mzee's little shadow.
"As soon as someone gets too close to the turtle, the hippopotamus will become aggressive, as if it were protecting its biological mother," zoo official Paula Kahumbu quoted online magazine Mongabay as saying.
Over time, they developed a common way of communicating: According to "Reuters", both of them make unusual sounds, nod their heads and gently nudge each other.
A friendship that also works without words - veterinarian Aiden and his adopted blind-deaf dog* also interact in a touching way, because they also only get along with touch and body language.
Their friendship is second to none - an animal shelter owner stays in Kyiv to protect his 400 strays and has no intention of abandoning his animals.
They are worth more to him than anything else.
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Friendship between baby hippo and giant tortoise goes viral
Many animal lovers were impressed by the close friendship between hippo Owen and turtle grandpa Mzee.
Several publishers have published books about the two animals - the two friends also have their own website, where updates on their friendship are uploaded.
"This unbelievable but true story teaches us many beautiful things on many levels," publisher Craig Hatkoff said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
As inspiring as Owen and Mzee is the animal bond of a dog who saved a girl from a panic attack.
The very next day, the girl adopted her animal hero.
*kreiszeitung.de and 24hamburg.de are offers from IPPEN.MEDIA.