I have a lifetime supply:
Posted on 12/29/2005 10:30:16 AM PST by presidio9
The unlikely couple of a baby hippo and a 130-year-old tortoise were still together, a year after the hippo was separated from its family by the Indian Ocean tsunami.
The relationship between Owen, the two-year-old hippopotamus, and Mzee, the giant tortoise, surprised conservation workers and made international headlines.
Owen was living with his family on the Sabaki River when massive waves from the Indian Ocean tsunami reached the East African coast. He was washed into the ocean and stranded on a reef.
Residents of Malindi, a small coastal town, used fishing nets to catch him. He was then taken to the Haller Park sanctuary, where he met Mzee and adopted him as a surrogate parent. Owen may have been attracted by Mzee's round shape and gray color that are somewhat similar to that of an adult hippopotamus.
The tortoise at first resisted. But the persistent Owen kept following him around the park, into the pool and trying to sleep next to him.
Mzee relented after several days. As the bond grew, the tortoise even returned signs of affection. They are now inseparable.
Conservation workers plan to introduce Owen to a 13-year-old female hippo named Cleo early next year, hoping to see the two develop a strong relationship. The female hippo has lived without companionship from her species for more than a decade.
The delicate process will begin with getting the two animals to meet and get used to each other's smell before they moving them into a larger enclosure together with the tortoise.
Actually, the workers have no idea WHAT is going on in Owen's mind. As the article points out, they think he may have been attracted by the turtle's shape.
Because many of us are starved for..... ummmmmm.... affection.
Yeah, that's the ticket.
Admit it: By "affection" you mean "hot turtle love."
I have a lifetime supply:
Saaay, that is one shiny looking turtle on the can.
(proudly) I rubbed him myself!
I guess that's why he's smiling.
Not everyone has been LazamaRubbed.
Yes I have.
Cute!
Little hippos are way cute ... so are baby rhinos ... )
ping
Perhaps they should move to The Netherlands.
Sounds like he would be attracted by Teddy Kennedy.
In more ways than you think (pictures below).
The following pictures are of a lioness (called Kamuniak, which means Blessed One) who adopted a baby Oryx and watched over it. This also took place in Kenya (which has a funny history of such occurences, including one where a dog raised an abandoned infant for some time until she was rescued), at the Samburu National park. Kamuniak took care of the calf at great expense, to the point where she was literally starving since she couldn't go hunting (doing so would mean leaving the calf, and in the bush a calf's survival rates alone are next to nil due to predators). Anyways, she was so hungry that she lay down out of exhaustion (all of this was caught on tape by this lady who was making a documentary on the matter), and the calf wandered of a bit .....only to be snatched up and devoured by a lion. The lioness couldn't do anything because she was too weak, and also because lionesses simply do not have the strength to face off against male lions.
Anyways, some time later she adopted another oryx calf. This time I believe it died of starvation. Then after that a third orxy calf, and this time she would let it go to its real mother to suckle. This calf was taken by lions.
After this she got real protective, when she took in her fourth calf. She would let it get back to its herd to suckle, and this time she would fend off the calf from predators (like Hyenas) as well as actually stand against lion prides. She also got a fifth calf.
Kamuniak has not been seen for a while (last seen February of 2003), however the park is large and there is hope she is alright.
Here are the pictures:
PS: The following site has some pictures together with audio:
thanks!
Thanks!
Thanks for the post!
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