- 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 away 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 followed 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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