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.

The baby 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.

"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 and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. "The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.They swim, eat and sleep together. "The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother."

Thats so cool!

They know because it's smiling a lot?

Well, in the first picture, yep, definitely a smile...heh.

In the second picture, the expression on the tortoises' face seems more along the lines of, "If you don't get that friggin' camera outta here, I'm gonna run your butt off my space here."

Edited to add: 'course, it's the angle of the tortoise's face, because, obviously, it's the exact same expression in both pictures...lololol.

LOL, what a cute baby!