an email from Dick Garvey.. I think you will love the pictures
"Much of life can never be explained but only witnessed."
- Rachel Naomi Remen, MD
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, 2004 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.
This is a real story that shows that our differences don't matter much
when we need the comfort of another. We could all learn a lesson from these
two creatures of God. Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the
path together.
Save the Earth... it's the only planet with chocolate
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