Talk:Owen and Mzee

Photo?
I believe that this article needs a photo, references, and further editing. -Scottwiki 03:28, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Owen (hippopotamus)
Duplicate article that I changed to a redirect. See if there's anything in here that can be put into this article.

Owen is a two-year-old hippopotamus that was orphaned by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. At that time, Owen was a baby hippopotamus living near the Kenyan coast. As the tsunami hit, baby Owen was caught by the waves, separated from his mother, and washed out into the Indian Ocean. Facing near certain death, he was luckily rescued by wildlife rangers in the waters near Malindi.

On December 27, Owen was relocated to the Haller Park wildlife sanctuary in Mombasa, Kenya. Soon after being placed into his enclosure, the hippo discovered the giant tortoise also housed in the space. The tortoise, named Mzee and estimated to be between 100 and 130 years old, did not accept Owen at first. Yet Owen continued to follow Mzee, and within days they had taken on a mother-childlike relationship.

Mzee happy?
So Owen's fine to have a new friend of his own species. What about Mzee? Does he miss Owen? --213.39.158.183 13:27, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

I would be interested to know as well. The tortoise's feelings count as well!


 * Given that Aldabra giant tortoises live about 4-5 times as long as hippos, Mzee would've been separated from Owen eventually anyway. 24.214.230.66 (talk) 08:20, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

13 Languages
Um, Braille is not a language. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.29.16.127 (talk) 13:20, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Friendship
How exactly can animals form a "friendship"? Just more wiki anthropomorphizing? Alvis (talk) 07:07, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

They're clearly demonstrating altruism. This is something that's documented in the animal world (and, if you're around animals enough, you'll see it yourself). So one question would be, "Can altruism be such a significant part of friendship that it can be called friendship itself?" I personally think that that in this case, the use of the word friendship is acceptable. Animals can demonstrate behavior similar enough to ours to meet the definition. In this case, the childrens book "Will You Be My Mom?" anthropomorphizes the situation. In reality, Owen was probably thinking something like, "Please take care of me." 170.145.0.100 (talk) 20:29, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

Charters Towers Revival
is it happening and what will be the result will you take the challenge to be there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.130.226.111 (talk) 02:59, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Book
There is a book, too. Could someone add this? "Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship" by Isabella Hatkoff and Craig Hatkoff (2006) Rissa, Guild of Copy Editors (talk) 20:19, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

http://smile.amazon.com/Owen-Mzee-Story-Remarkable-Friendship/dp/0439829739/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429647326&sr=8-1&keywords=Owen+%26+Mzee