• Animals
  • Art
  • Beauty
  • Entertainment
  • Food
  • Funny
  • Health
  • Life
  • Parenting
  • Travel
Skip to content
  • Animals
  • Art
  • Beauty
  • Entertainment
  • Food
  • Funny
  • Health
  • Life
  • Parenting
  • Travel

  • Animals
  • Art
  • Beauty
  • Entertainment
  • Food
  • Funny
  • Health
  • Life
  • Parenting
  • Travel
Sunday 29 January 2023

Penguin Swims 5,000 Miles To See His Fisherman Pal Every Year

[rsnippet name="ad/Articles_Below_Subject_Line"]
38cf969c00000578 3808151 image a 4 1474908315230.jpg?resize=648,365 - Penguin Swims 5,000 Miles To See His Fisherman Pal Every Year

New photos have been released of the touching moment a Brazilian fisherman hugs his penguin friend who swims 5,000 miles to see him every year after he saved his life in 2011.

ADVERTISEMENT

The penguin, called Dindim, was snapped in the village of Proveta on September 5 on Ilha Grande island, Brazil.

Retired bricklayer and part-time fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, discovered the tiny penguin languishing on rocks in 2011.

ADVERTISEMENT

38cf983d00000578-3808151-image-a-1_1474908699680

New photos have been released of the touching moment a Brazilian fisherman hugs his penguin friend who swims 5,000 miles to see him every year after he saved his life in 2011

ADVERTISEMENT

38cf974f00000578-3808151-image-a-2_1474908275932

Retired bricklayer and part-time fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza (pictured), 71, discovered the tiny penguin languishing on rocks in 2011

ADVERTISEMENT

38cf976a00000578-3808151-image-a-3_1474908303472

The penguin, called Dindim, was snapped in the village of Proveta on September 5 on Ilha Grande island, Brazil

The helpless South American Magellanic penguin was starving and covered in oil but Mr de Souza took him in and nursed him back to health.

ADVERTISEMENT

It took him a week just to clean the sticky black residue from the bird’s feathers.

When Dindim was well again Mr de Souza released him back into the sea, never expecting to see his new friend again.

He was astonished when, just a few months later, the penguin returned to the island where he recognised Mr de Souza and returned home with him.

ADVERTISEMENT

Now, Dindim spends eight months of the year with Mr de Souza and spends the rest of his time breeding off the coast of Argentina and Chile.

38cf969c00000578-3808151-image-a-4_1474908315230

ADVERTISEMENT

The helpless South American Magellanic penguin was starving and covered in oil but Mr de Souza took him in and nursed him back to health

38cf976900000578-3808151-image-a-8_1474908358465

ADVERTISEMENT

It took him a week just to clean the sticky black residue from the feathers of the helpless bird

38cf970300000578-3808151-image-m-4_1474913841628
38cf968900000578-3808151-image-a-5_1474913853881

ADVERTISEMENT

The flightless bird is believed to swim around 5,000 miles every time he returns to Mr de Souza

The flightless bird is believed to swim around 5,000 miles every time he returns to Mr de Souza.

‘I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,’ Mr Pereira de Souza told Globo TV.

ADVERTISEMENT

‘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.’

Mr Pereira de Souza said he fed Dindim a daily diet of fish to improve his strength then took him back to the sea to let him go.

ADVERTISEMENT

38cf95fd00000578-3808151-image-a-2_1474908897388

When Dindim was well again Mr de Souza released him back into the sea, never expecting to see his new friend again

38cf96d300000578-3808151-image-a-3_1474908904495

He was astonished when, just a few months later, the penguin returned to the island where he recognised Mr de Souza and returned home with him. Pictured, Alessandra, 10, and Bryon, 6

ADVERTISEMENT

‘But he wouldn’t leave, he stayed with me for 11 months and then just after he changed his coat with new feathers he disappeared,’ recalled the retired builder.

‘Everyone said he wouldn’t return but he has been coming back to visit me for the past four years.

ADVERTISEMENT

‘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.’

Biologist Joao Paulo Krajewski, who interviewed Mr Pereira de Souza for Globo TV, said: ‘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.

ADVERTISEMENT

‘When he sees him he wags his tail like a dog and honks with delight.’

 

 

Please remember to LIKE our Facebook page and SHARE this story with your friends and family!

Posts

cutest videos cover.jpg - Today's Cutest Animals That You Do Not Want To Miss!
Life

Today’s Cutest Animals That You Do Not Want To Miss!

October 8, 2020
ec8aa4ed81aceba6b0ec83b7 2018 02 19 ec98a4eca084 11 23 15.png - Sibling Fighting Even Before Birth
Funny • Life

Sibling Fighting Even Before Birth

February 19, 2018
unborn.jpg - Mom Was Told By Doctor She Had Lost Her Baby But It Turns Out To Be False
Life

Mom Was Told By Doctor She Had Lost Her Baby But It Turns Out To Be False

February 19, 2018
wife.jpg - Mom Whose Heart Has Stopped Successfully Recovers And Gives Birth To Her Baby
Life

Mom Whose Heart Has Stopped Successfully Recovers And Gives Birth To Her Baby

February 19, 2018
rest.jpg - People Raise Money For The Restaurant Owner Who Had No Choice But To Close Doors After Wife's Death
Life

People Raise Money For The Restaurant Owner Who Had No Choice But To Close Doors After Wife’s Death

February 19, 2018

Pages

  • privacy policy
  • sunnyvibes
  • Terms of Service

[rsnippet name="sitename" multi-site="true"] Copyright 2020. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy   [rsnippet name="termsofservice" multi-site="true"]   [rsnippet name="editors" multi-site="true"] [rsnippet name="naver-post" multi-site="true"]