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Thu 24 Feb, 2005 04:23 pm
For a panic-stricken baby hippo, lost and far from home, the sight of a wrinkly, rotund old male tortoise must have suggested something different: Are you my mother?
Owen the hippo sought refuge behind the tortoise one day just after Christmas, and weeks later here they are together, safe and warm on a lazy afternoon. Owen looks like a character in a children's book, his eyes closed as he snuggles in a mud puddle near a reptile 130 years his senior. He pricks up his Shrek-like ears at the slightest sound, opens his eyes and then dozes off again.
Owen likes to rest his head on the giant tortoise. He licks Mzee and puts his mouth gently around the tortoise's head in what Baer said looks like a form of play. He spends most of the day with the tortoise.
"He walks behind the tortoise. He goes to sleep next to the tortoise," Baer said. "When he wants to go into the water, he nudges the tortoise and licks it as if to say, `Come on, let's go into the water,' walks off a little bit and then looks around and comes back to see if the tortoise understands.
"And when you go too close to the tortoise, he chases you away and defends it as his mother."
Where'd ya git them pictures of my family, Dys?
No, not Dys. I mean Colorbook.
Merry Andrew wrote:Where'd ya git them pictures of my family, Dys?
No, not Dys. I mean Colorbook.
Oh yeah, it's your family? ...what's their real names?
I found more on this article:
Looks like Owen is already pledged in marriage.
or else well have a clutch of Tortipottamuses
I printed this story for my daughter, Dys. She thinks it's precious. I think it's pretty cute, too. She's been pestering me for further info. Please keep us up-to-date. Thank you.
For more on Owen and Mzee, click on this site.
Scroll down to three squares, click on the middle one that says, Owen and Mzee, the book. It is a delightful children's book about the pair and how they have developed a loving relationship. Beautiful photos are included.
http://www.lafargeecosystems.com/receiver.php/DisplayHome
Great link, Diane. Thank you so much.
Speaking of the shelled creatures . . .
May 29, 2005, 10:37PM
Turtles make Isle history
Experts think 2 Kemp's ridleys nested Sunday
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
GALVESTON - Making a bit of Texas natural history, two sea turtles nested on Galveston Island on Sunday.
Although no one actually saw one of the turtles, experts said they believe both were endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles.
"The first one we're sure was a ridley," said Shanna Kethan, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries biologist who recovered eggs from the two nests. "Judging from the width of the tracks and the size of the eggs, the second one was probably a ridley."
Sunday's nestings were the eighth and ninth Kemp's ridley nestings recorded on the upper Texas coast and the first recorded on the same day on the upper coast.
The Kemp's ridley that laid 103 eggs in a nest on the beach at Galveston Island State Park was taken to a NOAA laboratory for fitting with a satellite tracking device and was expected to be released into the gulf on Sunday night, Kethan said.
Another 87 eggs were recovered around 10:30 a.m. from another nest on the beach at the Sea Isle subdivision on west Galveston Island, Kethan said. The eggs were to be taken to the Padre Island National Seashore for incubation, and the young turtles should be released about two months after hatching.
The first Kemp's ridley nesting on the upper coast occurred in 2002 on Galveston Island. The last Kemp's ridley turtle nesting recorded on Galveston Island was on May 16.
Kethan said a state park visitor spotted the first Kemp's ridley laying eggs around 8 a.m. Sunday and park officials called turtle experts to the scene.
Two hours later, a Sea Isle resident spotted turtle tracks and evidence of a nest and called a statewide hot line set up for people who see turtles on the Texas coast. People who spot turtles, dead or alive, or evidence of turtles on shore are asked to call 1-866-TURTLE5.
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