Watch: Penguin swims miles every year to meet the man who saved his life
You might have heard many heartwarming reunion stories but this one will surely make your day. This story revolves around a South American Magellanic penguin and a man. This penguin swims 5,000 miles every year to reunite with the man who saved his life.
Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, who is a part time fisherman and retired bricklayer, lives in a village located outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2011, he found a tiny penguin, in very critical condition, covered in oil, lying on a rock, he was almost close to his death.
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Joao took him under his protection and gave him a new life. He cleaned the oil from his body and started feeding him fish everyday in order to regain his health. Joao named him Dindim, reports Mirror.UK.
When Dindim was healthy, Joao tried to release him back into the sea, but Dindim decided to stayed with him.
‘He stayed with me for 11 months and then, just after he changed his coat with new feathers, he disappeared,’ Joao recalls as reported by Mirror.UK.
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But the story doesn’t end here, Dindim was back after few months and since 5 years he has been spending 8 months of the year with Joao. It’s believed that the penguin spends rest of the time breeding off the coast of Chile and Argentina. And it’s amazing to see how he swims 5000 miles every year to meet the man who once saved his life.
"I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me. 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," Joao told Globo TV.
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Every year he comes to Joao in June and leaves for his home in February. Seems like Joao is a very important part of Dindim’s family and he loves him a lot.
Biologist Professor Krajewski, who interviewed the Joao for Globo TV, told The Independent, “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.”
Now isn't it indeed a wonderful story of a beautiful bonding. Stories like these are worth sharing and makes us believe that the world is need a beautiful place to live in.
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