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Heartwarming Video Of A Penguin, Who Swims 5,000 Miles Every Year To Meet The Man Who Saved His Life, Delights The Internet [Video]

By Mohit Priyadarshi
Published on: 00:19 PST, Mar 12, 2016

“It’s practically impossible to look at a penguin and feel angry,” a musician once said, and 71-year-old Brazilian fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza would swear to that fact.

When Mr. de Souza found a tiny penguin languishing on the rocks near his home, located in an island village just outside Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, he could not help but feel pity for the poor animal. According to Mail Online, the penguin was not only on the verge of death because of starvation, but his body was covered in oil, apparently a result of an accident at sea.

While many people would have left the dying penguin to its unfortunate fate, Mr. de Souza took it upon himself to nurse the young creature. After about 11 months of nurturing, which involved cleaning the sticky black residue from the bird’s feathers, preparing a proper diet for the penguin which was made up of the fish Mr. de Souza captured at sea, and striking a bond with him, Mr. de Souza decided to release the penguin back into sea. During their time together, the penguin and his human companion shared a certain bond, which Mr. de Souza could not forget.

But no one would have blamed the penguin, whom Mr. de Souza affectionately named Dindim, from forgetting his human savior.

“He stayed with me for 11 months and then, just after he changed his coat with new feathers, he was gone,” said the fisherman, visibly affected by his friend’s departure.

But, cut to one year later, and the tiny penguin returned to the island where he recognized Mr. de Souza and went home with him. Since then, in what is an astonishing tale of companionship, the South American Magellanic penguin swims 5,000 miles every year to meet his friend who saved his life on that fateful day in 2011, according to the Guardian.

Metro reports that Dindim spends eight months of the year with Joao and is understood to spend the rest of the time breeding off the coast of Argentina and Chile.

And now the world is taking notice of this unusual, but greatly heartwarming, friendship between a human and a penguin. Speaking to Globo TV, a Brazilian news agency, Mr. de Souza said that Dindim is like a child to him. Despite warnings from his friends that the penguin would not swim 5,000 miles every year to see him, the veteran fisherman believed that he would, and that is exactly the way it has been for four years now.

“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.”

“Everyone said he wouldn’t return but he has been coming back to visit me for the past four years. He arrives in June and leaves to go home in February and every year he becomes more affectionate as he appears even happier to see me.”

In an interview with Independent, biologist Professor Krajewski, an expert on penguins, said that he has not seen a friendship like the one which exists between Mr. de Souza and Dindim ever before.

“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.”

On his part, Mr. de Souza thinks his friendship with Dindim is here to last. “I’m flattered Dindim is happy to exchange his home with thousands of other penguins every year to find his way here to spend one-to-one time with me,” said he said. “It’s a very special relationship.”

Yes, it is indeed a very special relationship.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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