In my family, I am the only one infected with the hippo-virus. My daughters think hippos are cute, but they like horses much more. The only thing they have is an eye for anything: hippo. Sometimes they have spotted a hippo before I have, which I find very amusing. This post is about a book my youngest daughter found. She was, of course, looking for a book about horses, but saw this book about a friendship between a hippo and a tortoise. It became my favorite book! The story is about a baby hippo that lost its mum during the tsunami of December 26, 2004, at Malindi, Kenya. They rescued Owen, and gave him a new home at the wildlife sanctuary called Haller Park, a restored limestone quarry. As Owen could not be put with the other hippos in the park, they placed him in an enclosure where smaller and gentler animals lived. He immediately made friends with a 130 year old grumpy Aldabra tortoise called Mzee, “Old Man”, in swahili. Owen and Mzee are inseparable, and even developed their own “language”, of soft sounds and gestures, which wildlife experts still can't explain. Nowadays, they even have their own website: Owen and Mzee. So, please have a look and find out, not only about Mzee and Owen, but also about little Toto (another tortoise) and Cleo (short for Cleopatra), an adult hippo brought in to keep Owen company. It worried the keepers, that Owen was sometimes behaving more like a tortoise than a hippo. Cleo had been alone for a long time and needed hippo-company. Luckily they get along well, and Cleo is teaching Owen how to be a hippo. Or at least remind Owen that he is a hippo, and not a tortoise!
Owen & Mzee, The Language of Friendship
Told by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff, and Dr. Paula Kahumbu
Photographs by Peter Greste
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