The wonderful story of Owen and Mzee: the giant tortoise who raised a orphaned baby hippo

Owen & Mzee

This is a wonderful and heart-warming story that happened in Kenya in 2005.
Owen, a baby hippopotamus was found stranded on the coast near Mombasa by some fishermen. The waves of the famous tsunami of the 2005 Christmas day have separated him from its family leaving him orphaned and stucked in the ocean. It was captured with fishing nets with great difficulty because it was very scared ans traumatized and then brought to an animal refuge. It was there that Owen met for the first time Mzee, a 130 years old Giant Tortoise, and then the incredible happened: Exhausted, confused, and frightened, the hippo immediately sought the friendship of Mzee and to everyone’s surprise Mzee returned the affection and decided to become the mother of this parentless hippo! They started to do everything together: walking, swimming, eating sleeping... Mzee became an hippo mother and Owen a tortoise child and even the biologists were totally amazed and incredulous.

Owen is alone in the world and stucked on the shoreline:



Owen been captured with fishing nets:



Owen and Mzee drink together:


Owen and Mzee eat together:


Owen and Mzee sleep together:


Mzee follows Owen:


and Owen follows Mzee


a little bit of snuggling:





Mzee becomes a hippo...:



and Owen becomes a tortoise!



photos by AFP