Meet Dindim, the penguin who returns to his human soulmate every year

[Judi Lynn]

Meet Dindim, the penguin who returns to his human soulmate every year

Seabird makes annual trek to his rescuer on Brazilian island
Janet Tappin Coelho Rio de Janeiro |
1 hour ago|



Four years ago, Joao Pereira, 71, found a South American Magellanic penguin covered in oil and starving on a beach on an island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. A friendship was born.

Since they met in 2011, the creature, which normally breeds on the Patagonia coasts of Argentina and Chile, three to five thousand miles away, has become a faithful companion, swimming every year from its habitat to spend up to eight months living with the retired fisherman in his house on the island.

“I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,” said Mr Pereira in an interview with Globo TV , in which the bird honks with delight as he recognises his human friend. “No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, let’s me give him showers, allows me feed him sardines and to pick him up,” said Mr Pereira who has named the penguin Dindim.

Mr Pereira believes Dindim formed a bond with him after he found it stranded on the beach and took him home. Over a week he cleaned the creature’s tarred feathers in the shower, fed him a daily diet of fish to improve his strength then took him back to the sea to let him go.



More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/meet-dindim-the-penguin-who-returns-to-his-human-soulmate-every-year-a6917621.html

[Delphinus]

1. Too cool!

[Judi Lynn]

2. A Penguin Is Beach Buddies With The Man Who Saved Him And It Will Melt Your Heart

A Penguin Is Beach Buddies With The Man Who Saved Him And It Will Melt Your Heart

This is SO WEIRD AND WONDERFUL.

posted on Feb. 4, 2016, at 9:23 a.m.

Here is the beautiful story of Din Din the penguin, and João Pereira De Souza, a Brazilian bricklayer.

- video at link -

Our story begins in 2011, on a beach near Rio de Janeiro…



…where a man found a penguin soaked in oil.



He picked up the penguin, fed and cleaned him, and when he was strong enough, took him back to the beach, ready to follow his destiny. But the penguin wouldn’t leave him. So he took him out to sea in a boat, and dropped him into the water to swim away.

When the man got home, the penguin was there, waiting for him.

More:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/a-penguin-was-reunited-with-a-man-who-saved-him-and-it-will#.xjZJxApKn

[Nihil]

3. That was a lovely heart-warming change to the usual news.

Thanks for posting it Judy!

[Judi Lynn]

4. Loyal penguin swims 5,000 miles to human friend each year

Loyal penguin swims 5,000 miles to human friend each year

Mar 10, 2016

Patagonian bird keeps returning to visit the Brazilian fisherman who saved his life

- video at link -

A penguin from Patagonia is said to have swam 5,000 miles every year since 2011 to visit to the Brazilian fisherman who saved its life.

Retired bricklayer and part-time fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza, who lives in an island village just outside Rio de Janeiro, found the starving penguin, who he has named Dindim, covered in oil and lying among the rocks on his local beach four years ago.

After cleaning the bird and feeding him a daily diet of fish, the 71-year-old attempted to release the penguin back into the wild.

However, the bird wouldn't leave and stayed with his new friend for 11 months before eventually disappearing into the ocean.

More:
http://www.theweek.co.uk/70450/loyal-penguin-swims-5000-miles-to-human-friend-each-year

[flamingdem]

5. Love this story

A love story!