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
Don't try this at home!!!
We've already spoken about Michael Scholl and his woderful job as one of the most expert reserchers on White Sharks the previous post.
Here we go again to show you some other pictures which have become quite famous on the web because they show a man who seems to have a crazy passion to pat the great whites on the back! Very kind and friendly indeed... but a 4m White shark it's not exactly the safest guy to pat!
Michael C. Scholl is a marine biologist specialized in sharks, very well known for his researches. He is also the Founder and Trustee of the White Shark Trust. In these pictures we can see him approached by a shark while he was paddling in a kayak. The images are really famous on the web insomuch as they have created many urban legends, like the one about a grateful shark who follows continously his human saviour!. The truth is simply related to the researches of Michael Scholl as we can read directly from his words:
"Sitting in a 3.8-metre sea kayak and watching a four-metre great white approach you is a fairly tense experience. Although we had extensively tested the sharks' reactions to an empty kayak and had observed no signs of aggression, this gave us little comfort as we eyed a great white heading straight for us, albeit slowly. Just a metre or so from the craft it veered off, circled and slowly approached from behind. It did this several times, occasionally lifting its head out of the water to get a better look. Then it lost interest, and as it continued on its way we were able to follow a short distance behind. Once we'd come to terms with having nothing between ourselves and a four-metre shark except a thin layer of plastic, our kayak made an ideal research platform for observing great white behaviour in shallow water. Its advantages are twofold: it is inconspicuous and appears not to cause the sharks to alter their behaviour for long, and it allows us to watch them in a natural situation, as it is not necessary to attract them to us with food."
This russian girl has a real seal as her home animal. She feeds it, goes for a walk with it and gives it to swim in her bath to feel like home.
For the greatest part of the readers of this blog this post won't tell much, but for who lives in Milan like me the one above is a very strage sight indeed!
The "Navigli", the old artificial waterways of Milan, which are almost disused since the sixties, have been chosen as an unprecedented showcase by Pershing, the famous Ferretti Group shipyard and leading luxury motoryacht constructor, to puts its latest creation "Pershing 64’"on display. Nowadays, seeing a boat in the Navigli is a very rare occurrence, so a luxury yacht 64 feet long in the middle of Milan is a very effective campaign.
In the heart of the city centre’s most picturesque district that takes you back to the time when waterways, in this case the Navigli canals, were the main thoroughfares to the city, Pershing is about to present an exciting world preview of the new Pershing 64’. And for the entire duration of the "Salone del Mobile" (Milan Furniture and Interior Design Show) , the craft will be moored on the Naviglio Grande canal, in front of the historical Vicolo dei Lavandai. The relation with this international fair is not accidental; Pershing 64’ has an extremely ambitious design, confirmed by the constructor’s partnership with Poltrona Frau for the design and construction of the pilot house, all the seating and numerous other furnishing details; as well as with other top name design companies for the remaining interior fittings. So the Pershing 64' will be one of the stars of the "Fuorisalone", that part of the show that includes all those events that will happen outside of the buildings of the fair, scattered for the whole city.
Positioning their new boat in the center of Milan is just the first step of a huge Communication Campaign branded "THIS IS NOT JUST" that Pershing will bring in many places of the world.
As you could see in the following pictures the Pershing 64' up the river reach the Navigli of Milan. A very out of the ordinary sight for the spectators...
Violent clashes with animal rights groups, such as Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace, combined with fewer whale sightings forced Japan's whaling fleet to head home from Antarctic waters with only 55 percent of its hunting target, the Japanese government said Monday.
Nisshin Maru, the notorious "death ship" of the japanese whalers is coming back with 551 minke whales—far less than the original plan to kill up to 935 minkes and 0 fin whales on the 50 planned.
Kudos to the activists for this great victory, even if it's hard to be happy when 551 whales have been killed uselessly.
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Photo: Getty Images ESTORIL, PORTUGAL - NOVEMBER 5: Olin Stephens of the U.S. is inducted into the Hall of Fame during the launch of the ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame on November 5, 2007 at the Estoril Casino in Estoril, Portugal.
Legendary American yacht designer Olin Stephens celebrated yesterday his 100th birthday!!
One of the most celebrated designers in the world, Stephens started his long career at 19, when he became an apprentice to a successful 6-meter designer, and by 21, he'd joined forces with Drake Sparkman, starting with the launch of the famous Dorade in 1930. In 1937, in collaboration with Starling Burgess, Stephens designed the Super-J, Ranger, selected to defend the Americas Cup after only seven races.
His connection with the Americas Cup continued when it returned after the war, designing six of the seven succesful defenders between 1958 and 1980.
All in all, after more than 50 years of career Mr. Stephens designed over 2,000 boats, including eight America's Cup winners.
He hasn't quite retired however - he still acts as an advisor to rating rules committees. Happy Birthday Olin!
Photo: ©Frank Socha
Olin Stephens in 2007, during the last America's Cup
Olin Stephens working on the plans for the new NYYC class boat, the NY32
©Rosenfeld and Sons
Rod and Olin Stephens dressed in suits standing at the end of a boom looking up at the mast on an unidentified sailing vessel
©Rosenfeld and Sons
Pictures from another era, some of the vessels designed by Olin Stephens:
J-5 Ranger
©Rosenfeld and Sons
COURAGEOUS and ENTERPRISE, America's Cup, 1977
©Rosenfeld and Sons
68' Olin Stephens designed, Minneford Yacht Yard built 12 meter class sloop CONSTELLATION (built 1964 in City Island, NY)
©Rosenfeld and Sons
COURAGEOUS and ENTERPRISE, America's Cup, 1977
©Rosenfeld and Sons
All the previous black and white images are taken from the Rosenfeld Collection, a huge and spectacular archive of the pictures by Rosenfeld and Sons. A wonderful collection to breath the legend of a vanished (except for Mr. Stephens!) sailing world. Click here to explore it
Happy Birthday again Mr. Stephens!
