A baby hippo had a lucky escape from high waters off the Kenyan coast in the aftermath of the recent Indian Ocean tsunami. Owen the hippo calf had been washed out to sea but was rescued off Malindi by Kenya Wildlife Service rangers. They took him to Mombasa’s Haller Park, where he was promptly adopted by a giant male tortoise.
The park’s rehabilitation expert Sabine Baer reports that he appears
totally devoted to his new ‘parent’. “Owen has no way of knowing that
the tortoise is a male. He would not follow his father in the wild, so
I think he is just desperate for a mother figure.” She hopes that in
time another park resident, an adult hippo named Cleo, will take over
maternal duties from the tortoise. |
