'The tortoise seems happy being a mother'

Owen, a 660-pound, year-old hippo, was swept down the Sabaki River, into the ocean and then back to shore when the giant waves struck the Kenyan coast. The dehydrated hippo was found and taken to the Haller Park animal facility in the port city of Mombasa. Pining for his lost mother, Owen quickly befriended a 120-year-old giant male Aldabran tortoise named Mzee -- Swahili for "old man." Haller Park ecologist Paula Kahumbu said the two are now inseparable. "It is incredible. . . . The tortoise seems to be very happy with being a mother," said Kahumbu, adding that hippos generally stay with their mothers for four years. "The hippo follows the tortoise the way it follows its mother."THE (SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA) DAILY TELEGRAPH