He wags his tail and squeals with delight! Just look at this couple!
If you are new to the Internet, then you must have already come across stories about how pets returned to their owners after traveling hundreds of kilometers. Today we will tell you (and show) a completely non-standard story, friendship and, one might even say, love between a penguin and a person.
In 2001, a 71-year-old retired part-time mason named Joao Pereira de Souza from a small island village near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, found a tiny penguin lying on the rocks dying. covered in oil. He cleaned the oil from his feathers, named the little penguin Jingjing and fed him fish every day until he gained strength. This was the beginning of a strong and unusual friendship between penguin and man.
A week after the rescue, Joao tried to release the penguin back into the sea, but the bird refused to leave its savior. After living with Joao for another 11 months and exchanging his infant “tuxedo” for stiff feathers, Jingjing sailed away in an unknown direction
However, a couple of months later, Joao met Jingjing again on the beach, after which they went to his home together
For the past 5 years, Jingjing has been living 5 months a year with his savior, the rest of the time he supposedly spends on the shores of Argentina and Chile.
It is believed that he swims more than 8,000 km every year to meet the man who saved him.
“I love this penguin like my child, and it seems to me that he loves me too. He doesn’t allow anyone to touch him, but if someone tries to do so, he starts to peck. He lies on my lap, allows me to bathe him in the shower, allows me to feed him sardines and pick him up,” said Joao
“Everyone says he won’t come back to me, but still he’s been coming back for the last four years.”
“He comes to me in June and returns home in February. Every year he becomes more and more affectionate and it seems to me that he is more and more happy to see me.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this before. I think the penguin considers Joao part of his family. When he sees it, he wags his tail like a dog and squeaks with delight,” said biologist Professor Krajewski in an interview with The Independent.
