Fwd: This is a Great story ...

----- Forwarded message from lynnyd@direcway.com -----
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 13:51:01 -0700
From: Lynn <lynnyd@direcway.com>
Reply-To: Lynn <lynnyd@direcway.com>
Subject: This is a Great story ...
To: "Aikman, Karen" <karen.aikman@lmco.com>, acatbird@highstream.net

Tsunami Survivor

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.

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Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that
take our breath away.

----- End forwarded message -----

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