Most of us think that animals that are born and raised in the wild will just think of the wild all their lives. However, this heart-warming story will definitely change your mind.
Joao Pereira de Souza, a 71 year-old fisherman living in an island village located outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil found a dying young South American Magellanic Penguin that is covered in oil five years ago. He decided to take the little penguin home, which he named Dindim, cleaned and fed him until his strength returned. After a week, the old man decided to send the penguin back to the sea but little Dindim refused to leave. Instead, Dindim stayed with him for eleven months and then decided to leave after he changed his feathered coating, a sign of his maturity. The old man thought that it is the last time to see the penguin but he was proven wrong for at least five years now.
A few months later after his disappearance, Joao has been spotted by the penguin on the beach again and then followed him to his home. Ever since, Dindim was spending eight months of the year with Joao and then the rest breeding off Argentina and Chile coast, the known breeding ground for his kind. Needless to say, it is believed that Dindim swims at least 5,000 miles every year just to reunite with Joao.
What’s more remarkable is that Dindim becomes happier and more affectionate when he sees him, Joao told Biologist Professor Krajewski, who interviewed him for Globo Television.