12/27/2025
The Heartwarming Bond of Owen and Mzee
This image captures one of the most famous and unlikely friendships in the natural world: Owen, a baby hippopotamus, and Mzee, a 130-year-old Aldabra giant tortoise. Their story began in December 2004, following the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami. Owen, then only about a year old, was swept away from his herd and stranded on a reef near Malindi, Kenya. After a grueling rescue mission by local villagers and wildlife experts, he was brought to Haller Park in Mombasa.
Traumatized and lonely, the young hippo immediately sought comfort. Instead of another hippo, he found Mzee. In a remarkable display of interspecies bonding, Owen began to follow the tortoise exactly as he would his own mother. Interestingly, "Mzee" means "old man" in Swahili, and the tortoise initially seemed indifferent, if not slightly annoyed, by the 600-pound baby following him. However, Mzee soon accepted Owen, and the two became inseparable. They slept together, ate together, and even developed a unique way of communicating through vocalizations and physical nudges that weren’t typical for either species.
Biologists suggest that Owen was drawn to Mzee’s dark color and rounded shape, which mimicked an adult hippo. For years, they provided a symbol of hope and resilience to millions of people worldwide. While Owen eventually had to be moved to a larger enclosure with other hippos as he grew too large and potentially dangerous for the tortoise, their legacy remains a powerful reminder that companionship can be found in the most unexpected places. This story teaches us that even in the wake of a great disaster, the instinct to connect and care is universal across the animal kingdom.