A close friend sent me this email and I just had to share it. If anyone has any more information about it please post a comment.
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.
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.
November 18th, 2009 at 3:00 am
SO cute!
November 18th, 2009 at 3:25 am
Wonderfull:)
November 18th, 2009 at 4:23 am
What incredible photos and a wonderful story
November 18th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Awesome!!!! Thanks for sharing!!! =)
November 18th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Hippos love turtles everyone knows that
November 18th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Watch out Torty When hippy grows?
November 18th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Hippos are sick, violent creatures that kill many people each year.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Owen and Mzee! I love them.
November 18th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
These photos are from a book called “Owen & Mzee”, a book about these two animals and their friendship. Here is the book:
Owen & Mzee: Language Of Friendship
And their website:
http://www.owenandmzee.com/omweb/
———————————————————————–
I own the book, it’s so heartwarming, isn’t it?
November 18th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
C’est fantastique.
November 18th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
DO THESE THINGS TASTE GOOD??
November 18th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Hippos kill an average of 8 humans every day. And they defecate all over themselves and each other. These disgusting pooping and killing monsters should be hunted to extinction. And giant tortoises are about as useless as Helen Keller.
November 18th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Creatures of God. Bullshit.
November 18th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
shopped
November 19th, 2009 at 7:11 am
Amazing
November 19th, 2009 at 7:17 am
Us humans could learn alot from animals.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:57 am
I would like to say thank you to all the visitors that showed up to read this story, which I orginaly posted on this blog over a year ago. I thought it would have been old news by now, but apparently not everyone has heard about these two “creatures of God” (yes I must admit I believe in a higher power, but this is my blog and I can say that).
I would like to know where Matt came up with the “fact” that hippos kill an average 8 people a day. While he is looking for those statistics I suggest he look up how many hippos are killed each day by humans. As to defecating all over themselves go take a look at your local city dump and water treatment plant then come back and make a remark about how messy hippos are.
November 19th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
So cute!
November 19th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
A really remarkable and heartening story.
What a pity we still have some heartless empty soul morons leaving stupid comments such as Matt Moyer, \Troll\ and idiot Michael.
But congrats on such a unique and charming tale.
November 19th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Great Photo’s whether they are ‘real’ or not, if someone can grasp the concept of compassion from them then that’s a good thing, as to Matt Moyer’s comments about Hippo’s killing 8 people a day….well Matt, if you had to deal with the shrinking size of your environment and all the natural threats found in it you might be aggressive to all ‘unknowns’ that cross your path. Yes Hippo’s can be aggressive and unpredictable but if you stay away from their habitat and them you won’t get hurt…
November 19th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Jan ~
nice story. thanks! it made me smile.
isnt it sad that it feels like we have to apologize for believing in God?
be who you is and dont apologize for beliefs that you hold to be true.
thanks for posting!
November 19th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
thats very heartwarming. the nature is full of such cute animals,we hardly get near any of them, thanks for sharing . And those duffers who only have negative remarks, thats nt required here, sorry.
hav fun
November 19th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
OK all of you people saying that hippos kill people every day, just shut the fuck up. there are way too many people in the world like 6.5 billion WhAT THE FUCK we have taken out every anamial in the world they are all down by at least 50%, so just shut the fuck up you foaggot that does not deserve to live almost none of us do.
November 20th, 2009 at 3:08 am
Los animales dan ejemplo a las personas. Esta muy bonitas estas fotos.
November 20th, 2009 at 3:16 am
hello thanks for share, SO cute!
November 20th, 2009 at 7:47 am
It’s amazing that so many people who have commented on these wonderful fotos and story STILL don ‘t GET IT!
All the wheels run more smoothly when we get PAST THE DIFFERENCES.
November 20th, 2009 at 8:48 am
I recently did an article introducing this story and video as part of a special week of programming on the National Geographic Channel - “Unlikely Animal Friends.” The week of programming was excellent and from time-to-time NATGEO will replay all episodes in different day parts. To see an excerpt video “The Tortoise and the Hippo,” please follow the link below. There are also several other heartwarming videos there, which you can link to.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/unlikely-animal-friends-4317/Overview#tab-Videos/07217_00
November 20th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Thank you Paula for the link to that amazing video. It showed me what happened to Owen once he grew up and got too big to hang out with Mzee. I hope everyone else also watches the video.
November 20th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I love the comments about how many humans hippos kill, don’t go near them they won’t kill you.
November 20th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
So very sweet!! It made me smile.
November 20th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
That was a very good story, and surprisingly it happens quite a bit in the animal world. As for Matt there, i must say that your’re DEFINETLY right about killing hippos to extinction. I mean, if humans were getting killed by the HUNDREDS every day and only kill 8 back in self retaliation then we should DEFINITLY be killed. For those of u who still didnt get it I was being sarcastic. Anyways hippos kill because otherwise they would BE killed. Humans on the other hand, kill mostly for pleasure. So Matt, before u say something about hippos and how they should be extinct, turn on the news, read the newspapers, or simply look out the window too see that humans kill at LEAST 100 animals every day for their on confort. So before u decide to hunt all the hippos to extinction Matt, try hunting humans to extinction, and then see how u like it. Btw, if anyone else asks, the sniper who killed Matt was NOT me I SWEAR! or did I?
November 20th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
To short-sighted people like Troll and Matt: Have you ever considered how many thousands of humans are killed by HUMANS everyday? And why do some hippos kill people? Simply because people invade their territory and greedy people out for the bucks kill hippos. And are these hippos any dirtier than your filthy sex culture of licking filthy sexual and anal organs when they make “love”? It’s not animals like hippos who will drive humankind to extinction - greedy, short-sighted humans will.
November 20th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
this almost made me cry. Very sweet.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
This is an awesome story and it really shows the power of love and compassion. i agree with most, if we took this example and applied it to our lives we would all be so much better off. Hippos killing 8 people a day is nothing compared to how many people we kill on our own. Hippos kill for protection while we kill for sport, power, religion or just nonsense. I’ll take the blame for snipping Matt, it’s what I do.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
This is so sweet! I’ve seen similar, but these pictures and the story are amazing.
To “Troll”: Hehe, your name does you justice. I got a laugh, at least! Anyways, humans are are sick, violent creatures that kill many people each year. Therefore, I think your sentence should say, ‘Hippos and humans are sick, violent creatures that kill many people each year.’ Yup yup.
November 21st, 2009 at 1:50 am
more proof that humans are not the only creatures on earth with emotions
and feeling of love and tenderness to other living creatures.
sometimes they rise above human standards
November 21st, 2009 at 3:20 am
Actually hippos and their excretion provides nutrients to the river and allow plant to grow, w/o them, the African rivers would be dead-rivers…you shouldn’t comment if your an uneducated ass like Matt Moyer…douche bag.
http://animal.discovery.com/mammals/hippopotamus/
November 21st, 2009 at 3:29 am
Wonder full story !!!!!!!
November 21st, 2009 at 3:42 am
awesome Story…!!
we must really learn a lesson frm thm.
MAY GOD BLESS US with tht good humanity…!!
November 21st, 2009 at 6:26 am
Hippos are beautiful creatures along with the rest of the animals God made.
this is a beautiful story, and although they may be aggressive this is a magnificent story.
November 21st, 2009 at 6:41 am
Wow, this is a touchy subject! Can’t we all just get along over some tortoise shell soup and some hippo veal??? Talking over food heals!
November 21st, 2009 at 7:13 am
They look so lovely together. At least they taught us something, that we can never learn without witnessing.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:43 am
I can’t believe that I never heard this story and I can’t imagine anyone not being touched by it either! What with all the horrific things that go on (mostly caused by Matt,Michael and the other ass) we need to see that love and friendship knows no boundaries. We are an increasingly calloused species (proven in the words of Matt,Michael and the other ass). Don’t go there you might not make it back (like Matt,Michael and the other ass)
November 21st, 2009 at 7:54 am
Really, Matt, Helen Keller? Shame on you and you better hope no tragedy ever befalls you because you will find yourself very alone with only your hand for comfort!
November 21st, 2009 at 9:29 am
The photos are amazing about the strong bonds on animals.
But it’s also amazing how stupid we humans are. The comments made by Troll, Matt and Michael confirm that. Sorry if I confront it wrong (it’s not supposed confront violence with violence…), but for me it’s impossible avoid it with these little-brained people with so tight and small vision of life. It’s because of IDIOTS like these ones, that our planet is going straight to hell.
Why don’t we get the sniper method aside and we better poo on them? They deserve it…
Thanks Jan for these pictures, they show us a great lesson of life (and sorry if I got mad with my comment, but I’m sure you understand it perfectly)
November 21st, 2009 at 9:57 am
Do they have casual sex in the butthole?
November 21st, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Hippos are extremely aggressive creatures, and often attack humans without any provocation. Call Matt Moyer and Troll and whoever else a douchebag all you want, but they are right. Very dangerous creatures. Many African people who try to make a peaceful living by using rivers and must constantly be on guard from hippo attacks. You could be minding your own business and just crossing a river and a Hippo could attack your boat for no reason other than it simply wants to fuck you up.
November 21st, 2009 at 2:26 pm
That story brought a tear to my eye.
November 21st, 2009 at 5:01 pm
To Matt and Troll…..
It is people like you who are destroying the world. You have no intelligence, no decency, no compassion. You are ignorant and foul-mouthed. I’d bet you are both animal abusers, hunters. Redneck morons to the end.
By the way, these pictures aren’t photo-shopped. There are many instances of different species of animals becoming friends and giving each other comfort.
I’ve been an animal rights advocate for many years. It is people like you, Matt and Troll, that makes our road so difficult. You are loathsome.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Even the animals they learn to live together,but the Humans..?
November 21st, 2009 at 7:44 pm
an animal is an animal. they are wild, yes. they can be killers, yes. but they are what they are: animals. their instinct is to protect themselves and that’s just what they do. and they don’t go around seeking people to kill like humans seek to kill animals for no reason sometimes. and sometimes, they show they have hearts bigger than a humans. on another note, this amazing story made my day.
November 21st, 2009 at 9:57 pm
“Hippos are sick, violent creatures that kill many people each year.”
** EDIT. Humans are sick, violent creatures that kill many people each year.
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:25 am
Where could I hunt for these? I don’t have a hippo yet!
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:14 am
Great pics and story. To all those people that wants Hippos killed why not say lets kill all animals and see how long we survive without them. plus dont forget HUMANS ARE ANIMALS TOO.
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:30 am
Thank you for sharing this with us,
It’s a great story was on animal planet not so long ago also.
We have a zoo here where a orangutan and cat have found companionship.
you may view a video here
http://www.zootoo.com/petnews/petcatkeepsorangutanalive-1064
Or can google Orangutan and cat and see many other videos also
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:59 am
Cuteness!
November 22nd, 2009 at 1:08 pm
When I first saw this I thought, “What a great footstool and end table!”
November 22nd, 2009 at 1:20 pm
To Jeff, I know you are trying to be funny and most people love a good joke once in awhile but give it a rest. If you decide to continue your dry humor I might just remove ALL of your comments and that is not like me - to remove comments. Just in case you are trying to fool me with different email addys, I also track IP’s.
November 22nd, 2009 at 1:29 pm
OMG!!! NO! Don’t do that!!! I’ll conform!
Yes, they are so cute.I love them so much.
November 22nd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
humans are sick violent creatures…dont kno if u noticed hun
humans could be extinct. world would be much better off with out us..
November 22nd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
so, the quake that triggered the tsunami killed 230,000 people, but at least it brought about a weird relationship between a traumatized hippo and tortoise. yes, god bless us everyone.
November 22nd, 2009 at 4:38 pm
I believe I’d rather live in the same world as the tortoise and the hippo…and we would all poop on Matt and Troll together…
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Just want to say that Troll, and I am sure he looks like a troll. Short, beady eyes and hates himself completely. How else can you explain his ridiculous comment.
Yes, hippos have been known to kill, but so do many more human drunks who get behind the wheel of their cars. I suppose that’s OK with him.
And what does his comment have to do with these pics anyway?
Just needed to address the fool.
November 22nd, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Without saying anything about the idiots who posted idiotic comments (go figure) I can only say that adoption works, here’s proof even in the world of these two. I was adopted, happily so, and am grateful every time I see more proof that adoption works. No matter what the species. Even for the idiots (who shall still remain nameless).
November 22nd, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Why do you all keep arguing with these people? They just want to push buttons. Be happy and ignore the morons who say dumb things.
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:28 am
“We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures of God.”
Correction: God does not exist. Heard about evolution?
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:38 am
they have a baby now, a totally new species scientists named this new species tortiseamus.its amazing. i will post its pics soon.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:36 am
Bryan you forgot to check out the video of Owen’s new girl friend. The link is in the comment above from one of the writers for National Geo.
Ole, but who or what put the evolution into motion? Even scientists will tell you that the DNA and cell biology is so mathematically perfect that it could have not been an accident. Your “correction” is not a correction but an opinion - yours.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:11 am
@Matt M.: I dearly wish you are “hunted to extinction” sooner than I post this comment since you must be some dreadful species that mixed cruelty and hostility with the lack thinking ability into some disgusting cocktail. Probably, it has never crossed your mind that when a hippo kills a human it is not in her/his bed in a house in the middle of a town but, yes, in hippo’s habitat, where humans do not belong. It’s really touching how you care for people who are stupid enough to disturb other creatures’ habitat. You’d do the same if someone tried to throw you out of your apartment.
oh, and, BTW, if you are so great at statistics, go and check the list of causes of death and see where ‘killed by a hippo’ comes… my wild guess is uuum 23,786…
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:31 pm
[...] El bebe hipopótamo y la tortuga allthecreatures.org/animals/the-hippo-and-the-tortise.html por Torosentado el 19:31 UTC [...]
November 24th, 2009 at 9:19 am
This is a great story with great pictures. I emailed it to a friend.
November 24th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Oh, I just love this story.
November 24th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
What a wonderful message to send to the world, through animals with unconditional love.
November 24th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
omg this is so cute!
November 24th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Subhan Allah!!! wonderful post
November 24th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
its wonderful to know that how they have adjusted. I wish we humen being also live like them with peace and love.
November 25th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
After reading the negative comments about hippos, I looked it up. I am opened minded. There were different amounts listed for deaths of people but the most reliable looking one was 400 total people killed in Africa by hippos. They are considered the most dangerous wild animal and they are the 2nd biggest killer of humans. There were reasons given for attacking humans like protecting their calves and other reasons but they are in water a lot of the time.
It appears that crocodiles have made them so aggressive and they have fights with crocodiles a lot. Crocodiles are meat eaters and they have to watch out for them. Lions and tigers do not have to worry about crocodiles attacking them. Also hippos do mark their territory with a lot feces and urine but many other animals also do that.
I did not mention the animal that kills the most humans. I am not including humans in this. Do you have any idea what animal kills the most humans? Here are some clues. An animal is anything that is not a plant or mineral for the most part. This animal kills millions of people a year. Mosquitoes carry malaria that kills millions of people a year.
November 25th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Great pics and story
Heart warming!
November 26th, 2009 at 3:07 am
Good collection of those pics
November 26th, 2009 at 6:01 am
awesome and lovely creatures with lots of LOVE
November 26th, 2009 at 10:38 am
I love pets and all kind of animals.
Its really fantastic.!!!!
SP,Brazil
November 26th, 2009 at 10:40 am
This is a heartwarming picture story. Baby animals are as vulnerable as human babies and other species can pick up on when a tiny creature needs help, regardless of the species, like when the mother tiger nursed the little piglets to health. The natural intelligence of our fellow creatures on earth never fails to impress.
November 27th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Great pictures and story
November 27th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Awwwww…thats sooooo adorable! Makes my heart happy! Precious babies! <3
November 27th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
To all the morons, STFU! I have noticed a lot of people leave angry comments. Not just here, but al over the interwebs. I feel sorry for them and their angry little worlds. I used to work at a zoo, and I love stories like this, thank you.
November 28th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Thanks for sharing this story and the beautiful pictures.
More can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_and_Mzee
November 29th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
This is so precious…now if our four legged creatures can get the love thing right…what happened to humans…I guess we could learn a lot from them…love knows no face, color, etc…it just is…that is agape love!!!
November 29th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Please give the negative comments the attention they deserve: none. There will always be people that are bitter, emotionally-stunted trolls with the warped need to project their poison into the world. Unlike the rest of us, they are condemned to always bear their own company. I can imagine no worse punishment.
These are amazing, amusing photos. Anyone who can’t see that aren’t worth worrying about.
December 1st, 2009 at 5:47 am
Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors.
Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits.
Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values.
Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.
~~~ Ghandhi
Minus the “words,” perhaps the baby hippo just KNEW what was right to do. . .
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:55 am
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dahveed7: A lesson for humans from the hippo and the tortoise. http://bit.ly/3dEMV9...
December 8th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Troll is a butthead. He is mean. He isn’t even nice.
December 13th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
awwzies!!!
December 15th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
JUST GOES TO SHOW , OPPOSITES REALLY DO ATTRACT.
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:14 am
I have seen these pictures before, they are really beautiful. Love knows no bounds
January 20th, 2010 at 11:26 pm
March 11th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
So, it’s okay to kill Matt for his opinion about killing hippos?
You know that makes you no better than Matt, or am I missing something here?
March 13th, 2010 at 8:19 am
AHH! OMG SO KAWAII~ SO CUUTE~! *_* i luv it~~~!
April 15th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Super Cute! LOL MY TUMMY HURTS CAUSE IM SO HAPPY~ :p
April 18th, 2010 at 4:43 am
I was really enjoying the pictures and text, right up until you added “Creatures of God”. Shame you had to poison such a nice post with the god delusion.
April 18th, 2010 at 4:52 am
Amazing
April 19th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
I don’t think injecting your faith into this adds anything.
To balance it out I’ll add that it is incredible when two creatures -that forked so long ago on the evolutionary time line- can come together in a mutually beneficial relationship.
Awesome story though!
April 19th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
This was turned into a childrens book and both were on the Opra show
April 19th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
So having read all the comments, I have to say that I saw very little of the supposed message being sent to us by these two creatures actually present in those commenting.
1) The administrator threatens censorship when someone chooses to have a bit of fun.
2) Death threats or wishes of impending death are meted out to two people who happen to not be touched by the above pictures, leading to:
3) Conformity demanded by all who consider the pictures to be sweet.
Are we allowed freedom of speech or not? Right now it looks like my freedom of speech is only respected if I agree with everyone who finds these pictures to be sweet or cute. If I dare suggest otherwise then I suspect I will be shouted down, told I am worthless, and told I might as well be dead by the very people who consider these two animals to be sending us a message of respect and tolerance for all life. Contradictory or not - discuss.
April 19th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
I’d just like to say two things.
1st. This is a wonderful act of Nature. Humans could all learn a lesson here.
2nd. To Matt Moyer. HUMANS Kill more than 8 humans a day. Maybe we should wipe ourselves
out and leave the Hippos be.
August 2nd, 2010 at 6:21 am
I always love the ’strange’ bonds animals make between themselves but this is something special.. Love it!
September 29th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
aww so cute, why do those idiots who think they can make nasty comments on owen and mzee have to spoil the fun for everyone. these ARE Gods beautiful creatures no matter what some moron with a computer thinks.
and to the blog owner: beautiful photos, thanks for sharing!
October 6th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Matt Moyer: You do more harm to the world than all the hippos and tortoises together