a cute couple in love

lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 5:59 pm

this story is a year old, but i just saw a report on CNN about it, it seems the hippo and the tortoise are madly in love :yh_love :yh_flower and there are plans to introduce the hippo to a girl hippo and break the tortoise's heart. :yh_brokeh Odd couple make friends in Kenya

Mzee and Owen have become firm friends despite the age gap

A baby hippo rescued after floods in Kenya last week has befriended a 100-year-old tortoise in Kenya.

The one-year-old hippo calf christened Owen was found alone and dehydrated by wildlife rangers near the Indian Ocean.

He was placed in an enclosure at a wildlife sanctuary in the coastal city of Mombasa and befriended a male tortoise of a similar colour.

According to a park official, they sleep together, eat together and "have

become inseparable".

"Since Owen arrived on the 27 December, the tortoise behaves like a mother to it," Haller Park tourism manager Pauline Kimoti told the BBC News website.

"The hippo follows the tortoise around and licks his face," she said.

The tortoise is named Mzee, which is Swahili for old man.

Ms Kimoti said that if the 300kg hippo continued to thrive then in the next few weeks they would allow the public to see the unlikely pair together before they are separated.

The sanctuary, which is on the site of a former cement factory, plans eventually to get the help of the Kenya Wildlife Service to place Owen with Cleo, a lonely female hippo in a separate enclosure.

This is the latest in a series of unusual bondings in the wild that have surprised and delighted zoologists in Kenya. In 2002, a lioness at Samburu National Park adopted a succession of baby oryx.

lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:01 pm

:-4 :-4

lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:07 pm

there's a book coming out soon with their story, and lots more photos.........................(you softy Snooze) ........Owen And Mzee at Amazon

Low prices on owen and mzee.

Qualified orders over $25 ship free

Amazon.com

lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:50 pm

SnoozeControl wrote: Talk about being a softy... have you read any of James Herriot's books? Or even worse are those "Chicken Soup for the Petlover's Soul" books. :yh_cryi am familiar with Herriot, and like the English countryside setting, but the chicken soup books, not my cup of tea.

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 3:15 am

Makes me wonder why acc and creamed beef cant get along *sigh*

big red · Post by **big red** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 3:00 pm

it reminds me of a relationship i once had:guitarist :guitarist :guitarist