Much of life can never be explained but only witnessed.

This is a true story of Mzee and Owen and their extraordinary friendship.

Mzee is 130 yrs old tortoise and Owen, a baby hippo that survived the tsunami on the Kenya Coast in December 2004.

The two have formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.

The hippopotamus 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 26th before the wildlife rangers rescued him.

Dr. Paula Kahumbu , an ecologist and manager of the Lafarge Nature Park in Mombasa said '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'.

'After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother.

Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond.

They swim, eat and sleep together. The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother, Kahumbu adds.

Lafarge Park is in close proximity to most Mombasa Hotels. On your next trip here, make it a point to visit these two amazing creatures.

A testimony that nature's miracles are many!