Opposites attract at animal sanctuary
But the two animals have become inseparable since they met at a Kenyan animal sanctuary after the baby hippo was rescued by game wardens.
The one-year-old hippo calf, christened Owen, was rescued last month, suffering from dehydration, after being separated from his herd in a river that runs 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’," said Sabine Baer, rehabilitation and ecosystems manager at Haller Park.
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Hide AdMs Baer said the hippo’s chances of survival in another herd were very slim, predicting that a dominant male would have killed him.
However, Owen’s relationship with the Aldabran tortoise named Mzee, Swahili for old man, may end soon.
The sanctuary plans to place Owen with Cleo, a lonely female hippopotamus.