社團法人台灣樂活動物協會

It is incredible. A baby hippo has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise.

小河馬和百歲陸龜的真情故事

Much of life can never be explained but only witnessed

很多生命現象我們目睹它發生的過程，卻無法解釋發生的原因。

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said

在非洲肯亞的孟巴薩市的野生 動物 收容所裡，一隻在海嘯中劫後餘生的小河馬，竟然和一隻百歲陸龜產生親密的親子關係。

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean , then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

非洲的肯亞在 2004年12月26日 發生海嘯的時候 (該次大海嘯有 300,000 人喪生)，有一隻重 300公斤 ，綽號叫做歐文的小河馬順著薩巴奇河被沖進印度洋，然後又被沖回海岸，才被野生 動物 管理人員救了回來。

"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park , told AFP.

"After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother.

當小河馬被海嘯沖走而失去媽媽的時候，牠的心靈一定遭受很大的創傷，所以牠必須找一個替代品的母親。

Fortunately , it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added. "The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

很幸運的，小河馬被沖回岸上的時候就碰到陸龜，而產生親密的親子關係，牠們一起游泳，一起吃飯，還一起睡覺，小河馬總是跟在陸龜的後面，就好像跟著媽媽一樣，如果有其他的 動物 接近陸龜，小河馬還會暴跳如雷，就好像要保護牠的親生母親一樣。

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.

實際上小河馬還只能算是一個嬰兒，現在卻變成一個孤兒，河馬是一種群居 動物 ，小河馬通常要待在媽媽身邊四年。

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

生命是否有價值不是以活了多久，而是以活得是否精彩來衡量！

This is a real story that shows that our differences don't matter much when we need the comfort of another. We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures. "Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together."