Cuteness to start the week

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.


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.


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. "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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