# The Tortoise and the Hippo?



## HLGStrider (Jul 30, 2005)

I am almost afraid to post this because I don't want someone to tell me that it isn't true and someone made these pictures up with computer tricks. It is such an amazing story, and these are such amazing pictures!

*Subject:* Hippo and Tortoise Love Story


 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.








Anyway, isn't this adorable? I'll post some of the pictures it came with on here too.


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## AraCelebEarwen (Jul 30, 2005)

Well if it is true that's kinda cool!  Very cute pics as well!  That's one huge tortoise! (that, or the hippo's really not that big yet..)


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## HLGStrider (Jul 30, 2005)

I think it is probably both: Big Tortoise, Small hippo.


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## Gúthwinë (Jul 30, 2005)

Yea, and thats incredible!


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## e.Blackstar (Jul 30, 2005)

If that's true (and it very well might be), that's kinda cute. 

Either that or Elgee just got royally hoaxed


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## Hammersmith (Jul 30, 2005)

e.Blackstar said:


> If that's true (and it very well might be), that's kinda cute.
> 
> Either that or Elgee just got royally hoaxed


Elgee got hoaxed. The Tortoise is real, but the hippo is actually a disguised German named Bernard.


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## AraCelebEarwen (Jul 30, 2005)

no! Can't you see the zipper on the shell?! It's the tortoise that's the fake! After all, how else can you get a hippo back into the wild?! It has to be raised without a lot of human contact, otherwise when released it would develop a habit of tipping boots, chasing innocent little kids and tromping through peoples gardens looking for the best greens! So someone had to put on the shell and raise the poor thing!

 hehe


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## e.Blackstar (Aug 2, 2005)

Hammersmith said:


> the hippo is actually a disguised German named Bernard.



Ouch, oh ouch! *is German*


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## Hammersmith (Aug 2, 2005)

e.Blackstar said:


> Ouch, oh ouch! *is German*


The privilege of being a mongrel is the license to pastiche numerous cultures, dear Blackstar.


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## e.Blackstar (Aug 3, 2005)

I...I think I undertood that.  

And I agree.


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