A touching friendship: To be with his former savior, a penguin swims thousands of kilometers every year - and shows him his love.
Penguin Dindim only just escaped a terrible blow of fate: The bird could not free itself from an unfortunate situation and almost starved to death.
But then a loving fisherman came to his rescue and nursed him back to health.
The penguin returned fit enough to the sea and has been visiting its rescuer every year since then, as reported by kreiszeitung.de.
With his gesture of thanks, he is strongly reminiscent of the swan, which years later still shows pure love to his rescuer.
Penguin swims 8,000 kilometers to the rescuer every year - as a token of gratitude
A penguin finds a friend for life in its savior: The Magellanic penguin was found years ago by a fisherman off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.
He was soaked in oil and could barely move or free himself.
If it weren't for the fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza, the penguin would have starved.
A small four-legged friend was also in a hopeless situation - but a man rescued a dog from the drainpipe from starvation.
The dog would not have found a way out of the pipe on its own.
Fisherman Pereira de Souza wanted to help the helpless penguin and took him home.
+
A penguin swims back to its rescuer every year.
© Georg Ismar/dpa
Fischer saves a penguin soaked in oil from starvation - and nurses it back to health
Joao Pereira de Souza did his best to revive the weak penguin.
He cleaned the animal and freed it from any traces of oil on its plumage.
The retired man took care of the penguin for about a week and fed him fish.
A short time later, the penguin, which Pereira de Souza affectionately christened Dindim, regained his strength and returned to the water.
Many would guess that the touching rescue story ends there.
At least it would be a happy ending for everyone involved: the animal was saved and its rescuer was allowed to release it into the wild.
But the rescue is just the beginning of a touching friendship between Dindim and his rescuer Joao: as a token of his gratitude, the penguin visits the fisherman once a year, covering 8,000 kilometers each time.
Unlike the fawn that a dog saved from drowning, Dindim visits his hero and philanthropist not just once after being rescued, but every year - and has been for four years.
This was reported
by Independent, CNN and Natureworldnews.
According to the fisherman Pereira de Souza, the penguin even lets him pet him, but not other people.
"He sits on my lap, lets me bathe him and feed him."
Inseparable: Penguin and his rescuer are of the same heart
The penguin and the Brazilian fisherman are now inseparable.
Dindim stays with his savior for eight months a year.
During his stay, the penguin sleeps in the garden of Pereira de Souza.
After the eight months, the bird swims back to the coasts of Argentina and Chile.
"I love the penguin like it's my own child and I think the penguin loves me too," Pereira de Souza told
Globo TV
.
"He always comes in June and then goes in February and every time he's even more impressed and happier to see me!" A man who once saved a lion cub also celebrates an emotional reunion - the animal thanked me in a touching way.
No matter how long ago the rescue was, the animals recognize their protectors even after years.
There have even been rumors that the penguin is being kept as de Souza's pet.
After all, the friendship initially seems unusual, like a rescue incident from America that brought together an extraordinary duo: a man saved a lobster from the cooking pot - and gave it a second life as a pet "Lobster Leon".
However, TV journalist and biologist João Paulo Krajewski was able to refute this thesis.
Magellanic penguins are very loyal to their friends.
That would explain why the rescued bird tirelessly swims such long distances to visit its human friend.
For Dindim, Fischer Joao is an important part of his bird family.
List of rubrics: © Georg Ismar/dpa