BOSTOM HERALD (Massachsetts) 22 November 06 May-December romance OK for tsunami hippo, tortoise
Nairobi: A baby hippopotamus that survived the 2004 Indonesian tsunami has bonded so strongly with a century-old African tortoise that the pair are likely to live together indefinitely in an animal facility here, officials said.
The hippo, nicknamed Owen and now weighing 1,500pounds, was swept down the Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean as a hippo toddler of barely 600 pounds, then forced to shore when tsunami waves struck theKenyan coast.
The blubbery mammal was befriended by an elderly tortoise names Mzee, who “seems to be very happy with being a ‘hippo mother,’ ” ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of the park, told Agence France Presse.
“They swim, eat and sleep together,” she said. “The hippo follows the tortoise the way it would follow its mom. If someone approaches it becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mom. Hippos are social animals that stay with their mothers for four years.”
May-December romance OK for tsunami hippo, tortoise