NEWS: Stray hippo finds unlikey new mother, page 1

A baby hippo found a new companion after losing his mommy and being separated from the rest of the herd. The baby hippo named Owen became attached to a 120 year old tortoise because of the simular color of the tortoise to full grown hippos. They can not reunite Owen with a herd for fear that the dominant male will kill him.

www.abc.net.au
A 120-year-old giant tortoise living in a Kenyan wildlife sanctuary has become inseparable from a baby hippo.

Owen, the one-year-old hippo calf, was rescued by game wardens last month.

He was suffering from dehydration and had been separated from his herd in a river that drains into the Indian Ocean.

"When we released Owen into the enclosure, he lumbered to the tortoise which has a dark grey colour similar to grown up hippos," Sabine Baer, rehabilitation and ecosystems manager at the park, said.

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I wonder if it's just the color of the tortoise that the hippo is attracted to. The size and slow movement of the tortoise probably is also a factor. What else could it be? scent? To me it's amazing that animals will adopt other spieces of animals, even if it's a reptile and a mammal that come together.

We will have to see if Owen refuses Cleo, the lonely female hippo that they will place with him, for this tortoise.

[edit on 6-1-2005 by Banshee]