This Lovely Penguin Returns To The Brazilian Beaches Every Year To Meet Its Savior

While we may have wreaked havoc on Earth by burning carbon and fossil fuels and destroying the habitat of thousands of animals, these animals still forgive us. Look at this lovely penguin. The story around this lovely penguin will surely make your heart melt.

This South American Magellanic penguin comes down swimming 5,000 miles to a Brazilian beach to reunite with a man who saved the penguin’s life. The former bricklayer and fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza lives in the village just off Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. In 2011, he found this lovely penguin lying on the rocks. It was covered with oil and it was dying. Joao rescued the lovely penguin and called it Din Din. Once he cleared the oil from its wings, it got back the strength to swim again.

Joao kept the penguin in rehabilitation for a week and then, released it into the wild. However, the penguin had already formed an unbreakable bond with its savior. Joao recalls: “He stayed with me for 11 months and then, just after he changed his coat with new feathers, he disappeared.”

But not for long. The lovely penguin came back to visit its savior a few months after the incident. He spotted Joao when he went fishing and followed him. It stayed with him for the rest of the year.

And it soon became a cycle. The lovely penguin came to Joao for the past 5 years, spent 8 months with him and the rest, it might be spending on the Patagonian coasts of Argentina and Chile.

Joao says: “I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me. 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. Everyone said he wouldn’t return but he has been coming back to visit me for the past five years. 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.”

A biologist, Professor Krajewski, however, is confused. He says: “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. When he sees him he wags his tail like a dog and honks with delight.”

It is well-known that penguins live for around 25 years and are extremely loyal. Hundreds of the Magellanic species are known to migrate thousands of miles in search of food. But this time, the rise of ocean pollution has resulted in many animals washing up on the beaches of Brazil. An oceanographer, David Zee is quite worried that this increase might be due to climate change.

He says: “Every year the strong ocean currents from the Falkland region traps and brings many species of seals, whales, dolphins, turtles, and penguins to the Brazilian coast. This is becoming more problematic due to environmental changes and the increasing frequency of El Niño, in which the Pacific Ocean is warming up for prolonged periods of time. The marine creatures get confused and lost as they are dragged away on the surf from their normal habitat and end up in areas where they are unable to survive.”

Oil spills make it worse.

However, the relationship between Din Din and Joao is a special bond. And though keeping penguins as pets is illegal, this one is special.

As per Professor Krajewski: “Professionals who work with animals try to avoid relationships like this occurring so they are able to reintroduce the animal into the wild. But in this isolated case the authorities allowed Din Din to stay with Joao because of his kindness.”

While we may have wreaked havoc on Earth by burning carbon and fossil fuels and destroying the habitat of thousands of animals, these animals still forgive us. Look at this lovely penguin. The story around this lovely penguin will surely make your heart melt. This South American Magellanic penguin comes down swimming 5,000 miles to…