AMAZING STORY OF PENGUIN WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH HIS SAVIOUR
Penguin swims 5,000 miles every year to see man who saved him
WHEN an elderly fisherman picked up a stricken penguin he never thought they would be best pals for life.
Now his feathered friend swims 5,000 miles each year to see the Brazilian man who nursed him back to health.
Retired bricklayer and part- time fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza saved the penguin after he found him on rocks in 2011.
The black- and- white bird was starving and covered in oil and Mr de Souza spent a week cleaning his feathers.
He named the penguin Dindim and rebuilt his strength by feeding him fish before releasing him back into the sea.
But loyal Dindim did not want to leave and spent another 11 months with the fisherman in his village on an island near Rio de Janeiro.
He disappeared after he had grown new feathers – but astonishingly returned the following June. Din dim has now returned five times, each time spending eight months before setting off again.
Magellanic penguins usually live along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in the cold waters off the southern tip of South America but some end up as far north as Rio.
Experts believe that climate change is causing colonies to move farther north to be nearer to fish.
Despite numbering in their millions, the species is listed as near- threatened owing to oil spills which kill more than 40,000 a year off the coast of Argentina alone.
The flightless birds, which live for about 25 years, are known for their loyalty and mate for life.
Experts believe Dindim goes to breed off the coast of Argentina and Chile before making the 5,000mile round- trip trek back to Mr de Souza. A recent video has captured the pair’s love for one another, showing the penguin behaving just like any other affectionate pet.
Dindim is seen nuzzling up to the 71- year- old and playfully pecking his face.
“I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,” Mr de Souza told a Brazilian TV network.
“No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, lets me give him showers, allows me to feed him sardines and to pick him up.”
He added: “Everyone said he wouldn’t return but he has been coming back to visit me for the past four years.
“He arrives in June and leaves to go home in February and every year becomes more affectionate as he appears even happier to see me.
“I’m flattered Din dim is happy to exchange his home with thousands of other penguins every year to find his way here to spend one- to- one time with me. “It’s a very special relationship.” Biologist Joao Paulo Krajewski, who interviewed Mr de Souza, said: “I have never seen anything like this before. I think the penguin believes Joao is part of his family and probably a penguin as well.
“When he sees him he wags his tail like a dog and honks with delight.”
Mr Krajewski said professionals who work with wild animals try to avoid forming bonds in order to reintroduce them into the wild.
But he added: “In this isolated case the authorities allowed Dindim to stay with Joao because of his kindness.”