Owen and Mzee

Meet a local celebrity: Mzee, the 140 year old giant tortoise whose unusual friendship with orphaned hippo, Owen, made international news after the 2004 tsunami.

Over the Kenyan Labour Day weekend, we took our children on vacation and visited Haller Park, the home of Owen and Mzee. We first read of their incredible story of friendship in a book that was given to Emma while we were living in New Brunswick. After being orphaned by the terrible tsunami that struck much of the coast of the Indian Ocean, baby Owen was rescued and brought to Haller Park. Unexpectedly, Owen instantly bonded to a giant tortoise named Mzee, whom he treated as a mother. The greatest surprise was that Mzee responded to Owen's affection and the two would cuddle and sleep together.

Mzee is pretty frisky for a giant tortoise; of course he still practically a teenager as far as giant tortoises go -- live anywhere from 200 to 300 years! (By the way, you can tell how old a tortoise is by counting the outer rings on their shell, just like a tree).

Owen, the hippopotamus, is now six years old and enjoys the spacious ponds and grassy fields of the Haller Park wildlife sanctuary. He no longer follows Mzee everywhere he goes. The Bamburi Cement Company created the park in 1970 out of its abandoned limestone quarry that had been founded on the site in 1950. All throughout the park are coral walls and trails lined with ancient fossilized sea shells that had been excavated during mining. Some of the giant clam shells are over half a meter wide.