NAIROBI (Reuters) – Clinging to the under-belly of a baboon, Gakii, a 3-month-old orphaned bush baby has plumped for an unlikely surrogate-mother.
In the grounds of the Nairobi Animal Orphanage, the duo cavort around in each others' arms, drink milk out of the same bowl and poke mischievously at a Reuters television camera.
"This is not normal. It has not happened here and I guess it has not happened anywhere else," said Edward Kariuki, a warden at the animal home in the Kenyan capital.
Kenya, however, has a history of unlikely cases of fostering among orphaned animals.
In 2004, a giant tortoise adopted and became an inseparable friend to a baby hippo washed out to sea off the coast of Kenya in the aftermath of the southeast Asia Tsunami. The pair became an Internet sensation.
Two years earlier, a full-grown lioness baffled experts in the east African country when she adopted a baby oryx -- a kind of antelope normally deemed a tasty morsel by the predators. (Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Richard Lough)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110610/od_nm/us_kenya_wildlife_adoption
In the grounds of the Nairobi Animal Orphanage, the duo cavort around in each others' arms, drink milk out of the same bowl and poke mischievously at a Reuters television camera.
"This is not normal. It has not happened here and I guess it has not happened anywhere else," said Edward Kariuki, a warden at the animal home in the Kenyan capital.
Kenya, however, has a history of unlikely cases of fostering among orphaned animals.
In 2004, a giant tortoise adopted and became an inseparable friend to a baby hippo washed out to sea off the coast of Kenya in the aftermath of the southeast Asia Tsunami. The pair became an Internet sensation.
Two years earlier, a full-grown lioness baffled experts in the east African country when she adopted a baby oryx -- a kind of antelope normally deemed a tasty morsel by the predators. (Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Richard Lough)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110610/od_nm/us_kenya_wildlife_adoption
