{Meru, Kenya, 1999}
The Black Rhinoceros and the Warthog
Sometimes love means just being there for someone else. All the time. And it may also involve a bit of grooming. I’m not referring to a gentle hair brushing or face washing. In a wild animal park in Kenya, it can mean picking dozens of ticks out of skin folds and, well, eating them.
Hey, don’t cringe! Life in the wild requires coping with all sorts of unpleasant things. And even a blood-sucking arachnid is a perfectly nutritious food for some animals out there. (For the record, around the world a lot of people, too, eat insects, spiders, and the like, though ticks, I suspect, aren’t typically on the menu.) The tick-related grooming/feeding task in this tale fell to Digby, a warthog, whose relationship with a black rhino named Omni went above and beyond what you or I might call friendship. After all, when was the last time you plucked parasites off your neighbor or school pal, and did it with gusto? Exactly.
Warthog
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Suidae
Genus: Phacochoerus
Species: Phacochoerus africanus
Despite the ticks, this is an endearing love story, and it involves not just the closeness between rhino and warthog but between rhino and his keepers, too.
Late in 1999, a blind black rhino named Mawingu, at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in central Kenya, gave birth. The male newborn was named Omni. He was hand-raised, to give him a better chance of survival than an older sibling that didn’t make it, and it paid off. Black rhinos are critically endangered, so each life is especially precious. The Lewa sanctuary is one of the few places that successfully breeds and raises the animals to help increase their numbers. Omni is part of that success.
At just a few days of age, Omni met Digby, an orphan warthog also needing human care. “It is difficult to describe their first meeting,” Omni’s keepers told me, “because they have been together since the beginning!” With their ages so close and neither having their mother caring for them, the two were kept in one bed like twins, albeit without the resemblance. Being out of their wild element, “they were isolated from their own kinds,” say the keepers. “So they formed a close bond with each other.” In fact, anyone peeking into Omni’s night pen would have glimpsed a single blanketed mound that was a baby warthog atop a baby rhino, both fast asleep.
As they grew, it was clear that Omni was mild in temper, a real softy. Digby became a little more moody, as warthogs are prone to be. Yet “they rarely had angry moments,” the keepers recall. Instead, they were sweet to each other, “licking and pushing playfully, running around like delightful kids!” And, of course, there was the grooming. “Digby was so persistent when it came to getting rid of Omni’s ticks!” Indeed, a film shot by the BBC at Lewa shows Digby nosing Omni’s ears in search of munchies and digging with his snout into the rhino’s cracked and creviced skin, with Omni lying in the dirt, perfectly content.
But Digby wasn’t always looking for a physical reward from Omni. The keepers say they were together all the time, whether eating, playing, walking through the bush, or wallowing in mud puddles to cool down. “The two were very protective of each other, and would try to scare off anyone who might be a threat to the other. They were brothers, best friends, and keepers of each other. They loved each other like family.”
Meanwhile, the keepers themselves established a very special bond with Omni. Legei, in particular, loved the rhino, having been the first one to care for him, bottle feeding him four times a day, taking him for walks, and helping Digby with that all-important grooming—scraping parasites from Omni’s skin. For Legei, as for Dibgy, Omni would lie down and happily, calmly, let the cleaning take place. It was a massage and a bath all at once . . . how could he resist?
“I was both mother and father to these animals,” says Legei. Especially to Omni. Starting at the tender age of nine days, Omni knew no other parent than this young man. “I would wake up in the middle of the night to feed and cover him.” Omni and Digby shared a bed made of grass, and keepers Kaparo and Kisio also spent time living with the animals to help Legei with their care. The men sang to the orphans—like parents to their babies.
Eventually, in 2002, the animals were to be relocated to another park about 24 miles away, and the keepers planned to walk them all the way there. Omni, who had become the leader of the two, was ready and willing to make the journey. But Digby didn’t want to leave his first home, and partway there hunkered down and refused to move, even when Omni coaxed him along. He finally turned and ran back, and the keepers and the rhino had to continue on without him.
Black Rhinoceros
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Rhinocerotidae
Genus: Diceros
Species: Diceros bicornis
Back at home, Digby was clearly devastated that Omni was no longer there. He searched relentlessly, then went on a destructive rampage when he couldn’t find the rhino he loved. The keepers soon realized that the animals needed each other, and decided to try to reunite them by flying Digby to the new location. But sadly upon arrival, the confused warthog ran off, disappearing into the wildlands, never to be seen again.
Was it love between rhino and warthog? According to Kaparo, when the two were together they were like a new couple, always touching, licking, or “petting” each other with snouts. They were there for each other for many years, no matter what the circumstances. And Digby’s behavior after their separation resembles that of a heartbroken teen, breaking rules and running away.
Sadly, I must report that Omni recently died at the hands of poachers. Legei and the others felt a special love for Omni and are devastated by the loss. Before his passing, they visited him whenever they could. And Omni remembered those who cared for him all those years, especially when he heard their voices. Poaching of African wildlife—for food or, often, for valuable animal parts like horns—takes a huge toll. Rhinos have been hit particularly hard and their numbers are dwindling. Omni is one tragic loss of many.
{Oregon, U.S.A., 2000}
The Elephant and the Zoo Friends
On the Indonesian island of Borneo, like in many far-flung parts of the world, the line between human and wild is becoming razor-thin. Where industries and economies are growing, nature often cowers under the strain. And some of the fast-expanding industries put the heaviest weight on wildlife.
More than a decade ago, a young elephant named Chendra lost her world and her wild companions to such human enterprises. But then, thankfully, humans endeavored to give life back to her. Hers is an unlikely love story of a very special kind.
It’s not an uncommon scenario these days: When the forested area of Borneo where Chendra was born was laid bare and converted to commercial plantations for the palm-oil industry, thousands of animals were displaced, injured, or killed. Having survived a shotgun wound that blinded her left eye and then weeks chained up at an Indonesian rehab center, Chendra was actually luckier than most. While still just a calf, word came that there was space for her at the Oregon Zoo in Portland.
Asian Elephant
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Family: Elephantidae
Genus: Elephas
Species: Elephas maximus
“She couldn’t be released in Borneo because she wouldn’t have survived on her own,” says Bob Lee, the zoo’s elephant curator. She didn’t have a herd, other elephants that would take care of her. “So we were happy to take her in.”
Elephants, you see, need each other. They are exceptionally social animals, especially the females, remaining in f
amily groups (with a matriarchal leader) their entire lives. The bond between pachyderms is knot-tight (they even mourn their dead in familiar ways), and physical touch is one key way they show loyalty and affection within the herd.
So once in Oregon, Chendra was given access to other elephants, to become part of a group, touching and communicating like she would in the wild. “We let her become very connected to the herd here,” Bob explains. “We exposed her to males, and she witnessed elephant births and has befriended the babies—one used to crawl up on her back in the pool when they played together.”
Putting Chendra among elephants was vital to her recovery from her traumatic beginning, but that wasn’t the only way to enrich her life. “We wanted more activities, more ways to feed her curiosity,” Bob says. And because in the wild, elephants are just one of many residents, “we started walking her around the zoo to meet the other animals. She’s like a well-trained dog—she’ll stay right with us. We can also let her go for a bit, keeping a wide circle around her, and call her back if she gets too far away.” Those baby elephant walks became social hours for Chendra; the sights, sounds, and smells of other creatures intrigued her, and she found out that making friends isn’t an act confined to the elephant habitat.
Palm Oil
Indonesia is one of the largest producers of palm oil, used in food, consumer products, and biofuel. Unfortunately, the industry is responsible for wiping out massive tracts of rain forest. Consumers who seek palm oil–free products or products with the certified sustainable palm oil label are helping protect wild lands and the animals they support.
“She wanted to see everything, to meet everyone,” Bob says. “She’s so inquisitive, and the other animals were interested in her, too. She’d sniff the air, flutter her ears at the squawks and squeals and shrieks from the other habitats as the animals called out to her. She’d inspect whatever she could reach with her sensitive trunk.” The sea lions, for example, would circle around her as if she were the guest of honor at a party. Soon, Bob says, “She was reaching out with her trunk to try to sniff them through the glass. And when we’d go back another day, she’d make soft noises, little rumblings, when she first saw them. Happy rumblings.”
Today Chendra’s friendly gestures reach all around the zoo, from the sea lions and penguins to the goats in the petting area. “One goat in particular has a crush on Chendra,” Bob says. “Every time we walk by he runs up and climbs on the fence, trying to be nearer to her. He bellows out, she sniffs him, and then they just hang out together for a few minutes before we move on. It’s obvious they like each other.”
But the biggest love story may be the one between Chendra and the people who have been such an integral part of her healing. Bob has worked with elephants for more than seventeen years, but Chendra holds a special place in his heart. “She’s really like our kid here at the zoo,” he says. “We watched her grow from a tiny nervous orphan girl to a grown-up adult, a confident ‘woman,’ if I may. The staff is here seven days a week plus holidays, so we see her, interact with her, every day. We’ve become her family and she is ours. For us it is truly love, there’s no other way to say it.”
And in the morning when Chendra sees Bob or her other human family members, “she runs over making those rumbling noises, sniffing and touching, showing off how sweet she can be.” The connection definitely goes both ways, he says, people to elephant and elephant to people. “There may be nothing more rewarding than that.”
{Hertfordshire, England, 1994}
The Lady, the Tiger, and the German Shepherd
Anyone watching Sarah Harriss approach the cage of an old Bengal tiger, clicking her tongue and speaking his name, might have worried for her safety. But there was nothing to fear. The eighteen-year-old tiger chuffed a reply, rushing over to greet her. He rubbed against her through the bars and she reached through to stroke his giant head and neck. If a cat can love, this is how it must look.
Sarah has had an exceptional bond with Bruno the Bengal for most of his life. He had been rescued from a circus as a five-week-old kitten and taken to Paradise Park in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England, where Sarah lived and worked, and she was responsible for his care. But even more remarkable than the lady–tiger relationship was the one that bloomed between the big cat and Sarah’s German shepherd Cash.
Bengal Tiger
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Panthera
Species: Panthera tigris
Subspecies: Panthera tigris tigris
Except sometimes as pets in the home, cats and dogs don’t usually find common ground. But starting in 1994, Bruno and Cash were the exception to the rule. In Sarah’s daily rounds at the park, she was responsible for feeding a number of feline orphans, including a litter of lion cubs and the young tiger. And Cash, always by her side, got to know them, too. “He was wary at first,” she recalls, “as he should have been—that’s only natural.”
But eventually he started interacting with all of them. “He would give them a whack if they scratched him but otherwise he was so gentle, licking their muzzles and bums. He acted like their mother.” As the animals grew up and spent more time in an outdoor enclosure, something special brewed between Cash and Bruno. “Bruno and Cash treated each other differently than they did the others. They’d play independent of everyone—one would roll over and the other would run up and start wrestling, they’d play tag, they’d snuggle up together. We’d take Bruno on walks around the zoo and Cash would come along. One time some llamas got too close, and Cash nudged them away,” as if protecting his friend from strangers (or maybe not wanting to share). “The way they acted,” says Sarah, “the way they stopped and looked at each other, it was clear they totally loved each other.”
Sarah says Cash, as a puppy, had been a very nervous dog. “But when he was with Bruno, he was in another domain—he was a different animal. Seeing him find himself and be fearless and dominant was lovely. Bruno brought that strength out in him.”
Tiger and dog were playmates for more than eight months, but eventually the tiger’s size and boisterousness was too much for Cash—Sarah worried he might get hurt. So, playdates ceased and the animals could see each other only with a barrier between them. But Sarah is sure their friendship remained at the ready, in case they were reunited.
Eventually, Sarah left Paradise Park, and Cash passed away back in 2001. “But he spent the rest of his days doing things for other animals,” Sarah says. “That’s just the kind of dog he was.”
And Bruno? He has since retired from public view, moving to another animal facility in Kent, where Sarah visits him from time to time. “It all comes flooding back when I see him,” she says, “how I used to lie in the cage and have lion and tiger cubs crawling all over me, and how Cash and Bruno played and wrestled and loved each other. I was so lucky to be part of that.”
{Georgia, U.S.A., 2012}
The Zebra and the Donkey
Now for something completely different, let’s hear about the zebra that loved the donkey—at least twice. We’ll call it a two-night stand. Wonderfully, the unexpected affair resulted in two very rare and precious gifts.
Zeke the zebra and Sarah the donkey had been running in the pasture together without incident for years. Both live at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve in Georgia, run by founder C. W. Wathen, pronounced with the appropriate Southern drawl as “cee dubya.”
Zebras are naturally a bit skittish. And for good reason. In the wilds of Africa, chances are a big cat predator is lurking in the grass. Smartly, the ungulates tend to hang out with herds of wildebeest or Cape buffalo, seeking safety in numbers. And though to us they seem to stand out, zebra stripes may actually offer them some camouflage in their natural savannah habitat.
Anyway, here you have Zeke
living among the other pasture-going animals, the horses and cows and donkeys. (“It’s a real zoo around here,” C. W. jokes.) The donkeys in particular seem to keep the zebra calm. “I’ve run them together for years,” he says. “Everyone gets along great and the zebra stays settled.” None of the animals has ever shown another any particular affection, he says—there’s no nuzzling or courting or sneaking off to cuddle up, at least not that he’s witnessed.
And yet, some particular affection did happen. And the only reason C. W. found out about it was because suddenly, his donkey Sarah was pregnant. And some twelve months later, out dropped a creature that was a little bit donkey and a little bit zebra, which kind of gave things away.
“We only have one male zebra,” C. W. says, “so we know he’s the one. He can’t hide from that!” Still, he says, around the barnyard, “nobody’s talking.”
Plains Zebra
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Equidae
Genus: Equus
Species: Equus quagga
So now there was Tippy the “zedonk,” a bit wobbly at first, as newborn ungulates are, but soon running with the long-legged crowd. Her own legs appear dressed in striped tights (from Dad); her long face is a good mix; her ears are Mom all the way.
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