Heartwarming stories of incredible friendships between humans and animals

Amid the heartbreaking fire at Chester Zoo, there was one positive story – that many animals were saved because of the deep friendships forged between them and their human handlers.

Zoo bosses said the strong bonds between the keepers and many of the animals, including six organutans, four gibbons and 18 macaque monkeys, as well as some of the birds, meant that they were able to survive the blaze.

Mike Jordan, the zoo’s animal and plant director, said: “We were able with our keepers and relationships they have with the animals, the strong bond between them, to call the animals out.”

It’s not the first time humans and other species have bonded in a special way, resulting in an amazing partnership and even touching acts of love.

Here we look at ten of the most incredible friendships between animals and humans…

FILIPPO THE DOLPHIN

Filippo had lived in the waters off Malfredonia, southeast Italy, for around two years being separated from a visiting school of dolphins and had become a popular tourist attraction.

The friendly bottlenose dolphin became a local hero too after saving a 14-year-old boy who had fallen into the Adriatic Sea and didn’t know how to swim.

Unbeknown to his parents, teenager Davide Ceci had fallen off the boat they were on during a tourism trip in 2000 and was sinking under the waves and seconds from death.

But the 61-stone creature saw the boy was in distress and pushed him up to the surface, before bringing him close enough to the boat for his father Emanuele to pull him out of the water.

His mother Signora said: “He’s a hero. It seems impossible that an animal could have done something like that, to feel the instinct to save a human life.”

Maritime researcher Dr Giovanna Barbieri said: "Filippo seems not to have the slightest fear of humans. I’m not surprised he should have done such a wonderful thing as to save a human."

GABI’S CROWS

Gabi Mann’s remarkable relationship with the crows in her Seattle suburb started when she was four years old, when she would accidentally drop food while getting out of her car and the birds would rush to recover it.

And she got older, she started to share her packed lunch with the crows as she walked to school, and soon the birds were lining up in the afternoon to greet Gabi’s bus as she came home.

In 2013, she started providing a daily snack of peanuts in a bird feeder in their back garden. But to her surprise, the crows – who she already knew well – began to show their appreciation by bringing back gifts for Gabi, then eight.

The crows would clear the feeder of peanuts, then leave shiny trinkets on the empty tray, from buttons and beads to earrings and pieces of worn glass. Before long, Gabi had hundreds of objects given to her by the crows.

And once, when her mum Lisa lost her camera lens cap while taking photos in the neighbourhood, one of the crows found it and brought it back, leaving it for her in the garden feeder.

LURCH THE WATUSI CALF

Janice Wolf was out walking with her dogs around her animal sanctuary, the Rocky Ridge Refuse in Gassville, Arkansas, one day when her 11-month-old African Watusi calf, Lurch, started acting oddly.

The calf, who Janice had nurtured to health after rescuing him, stepped right into her path and turned sideways, blocking her path.

Puzzled by this apparently stubborn behaviour, Janice grabbed his horns to push him out of the way, but Lursh tossed his head, throwing her off balance.

That was when she noticed the coiled copperhead snake – or pit viper – lying right when she was about to take her next step.

When one of her dogs ran over to investigate, and was bitten by the snake, Lurch trampled the reptile, killing it.

Lurch, who was later awarded a Guinness World Record for the largest horn circumference on a steer, went on to live as a member of Janice’s family until passing away in 2010.

KABANG THE DOG

In December 2011, 11-year-old Dina Bunggal and her three-year-old cousin Princess Diansing went to cross a street in Zamboanga City, Philippines, when a speeding motorcycle lost control and barrelled towards them.

The girls, trapped in the motorcycle’s path, would have been hit and possibly killed by the oncoming vehicle if it weren’t for their beloved Aspin dog Kabang, whose name means ‘Spotty’.

In a brave act of love the pet hurled herself in front of the motorcycle, saving both the girls’ lives.

Dina, Princess, and the driver of the motorcycle walked away from the crash with minor cuts and bruises.

But sadly Kabang was gravely injured in the accident – when she jumped in front of the motorcycle, her face became lodged in the bike’s front wheel and her snout was torn off from the impact.

Thanks to donations from well-wishers, Bunggal received £20,000 facial reconstruction surgery in the US in 2012 to help her to have a normal life again.

DIMDIM THE PENGUIN

In 2011 71-year-old widower Joao Pereira de Souza found a South American Magellanic penguin covered in oil on a beach on an island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The 71-year-old instantly formed a bond with the flightless bird, who he named Dindim, after he took the starved creature to his home and nursed him back to health.

But after cleaning up his tarred feathers and feeding him a daily diet of fish to improve his strength, he never imagined he would see him again after he then took him back to the sea to let him go.

Dimdim turned around and came back, staying with Joao for 11 months before disappearing as soon as he had changed his coat for new feathers.

But then, to his surprise, the penguin has made the 5,000- mile journey from his homeland on the Patagonia coast back to Joao’s home every year since, arriving in June and staying for up to eight months, before heading off again.

The retired fisherman told Globo TV: "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."

KERRY THE HORSE

Fiona Boyd was at home on her own one day at her family’s Chapmanton Farm near Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, in 2007 when she heard the cries of a young calf in distress.

She found the calf separated from its mother, and decided to try to move both the calf and her mother into a shed.

But as she was trying to move the calf its mother responded to its cries and, seeing Fiona next to its young, charged over and knocked her to the ground. Every time she tried to get up or crawl away the bellowing mother would slam into her again, knocking her back down.

Fiona’s life was saved after her 15-year-old chestnut mare, Kerry, who was grazing in the same field, heard her screams and ran over, charging at the attacking cow and kicking out wildly.

As the horse drove the cow back, Fiona was able to crawl 20 feet to the electric fence and under it to safety.

Fiona remembered: "I knew I had to get away from her or she was going to kill me, and as I tried to get up, the cow just fell right on top of me. I thought to myself ‘this is it, I’m going to die’."

GOBI THE DOG

Ultra-runner Dion Leonard had just finished stage one of the first 155-mile seven-day Gobi March marathon across China’s Gobi desert when he noticed a scruffy dog begging for food.

He refused to hand over any of his precious rations to the stray, but the next day noticed the dog at the starting line for the next gruelling stage of the race.

To his surprise, the friendly dog didn’t leave his side for the entire leg, which took competitors over the Tian Shan mountain range and through fast-flowing rivers – and the two developed an inseparable bond.

By the time the pooch – a possible mix of pug, shihtzu and Chihuahua – had ran a total of 77 miles with him to the finish line, 44-year-old Dion was determined to adopt the dog, who he named Gobi, and bring him home to Scotland.

But in August 2016, just before she was due to enter quarantine, Gobi vanished from the home where he was waiting in the Chinese city of Urumqi, and Dion launched a huge campaign to find him. Amazingly he was found and Dion finally got to take him home.

Dion has written a book about the amazing story of canine friendship, which is soon to be turned into a film after the rights were bought by 20th Century Fox.

CHRISTIAN THE LION

When Australians John Rendall and Anthony Bourke saw lion cub Christian for sale in Harrods in December 1969, they decided to buy him to give him a better life.

They raised the four-month-old cub, who they called Christian, in their flat in Chelsea and he became a much-loved local on the King’s Road, where he mingled with the rich and famous.

The following summer, they agreed to have Christian flown to Kenya and return to the wild with the help of wildlife conservationist George Adamson, whose story is told in the film Born Free.

A year later, the two went to the mountains of Kenya to see him again, but were told that Christian was now the head of his own pride and completely wild, and would no longer remember them.

Undaunted they went anyway, and after many hours of looking for the pride finally found Christian, who ran up to them, smothering his former flatmates with hugs and playful cuddles – and even introduced them to his wife.

A video of the lion’s emotional reunion with John and Anthony was published on YouTube and captured the public’s hearts.

GORILLAS BINTI JUA AND JAMBO

The eight-year-old gorilla made headlines in 1996 when a three-year-old boy fell into her enclosure at the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois and lost consciousness.

Binti Jua, a female Lowland gorilla, guarded the young boy from the other gorillas in the enclosure, then cradled him in her arms before carrying her 60 feet to an entrance so that zoo-keepers could retrieve him – all while carrying her own 17-month-old baby on her back.

It’s not the first time gorillas have instinctively protected children who have accidentally fallen into their enclosures.

On August 31 1986 at Jersey Zoo, on the island of Jersey, five-year-old Levan Merrit slipped and fell into a gorilla enclosure and and lost consciousness.

As he motionless on the ground, his family looked on in terror as 7ft tall 18 stone silverback male Jambo slowly approached him – then began to gently stroke Levan’s back.

The gorilla stood guard over Levan when he was unconscious, placing himself between the boy and the other gorillas in a protective gesture. And when the boy woke up and started crying he led his fellow gorillas into a house in the pen so zoo-keepers could retrieve the boy to safety.

Thirty years later, Levan said in an interview: ‘I am forever thankful to Jambo as obviously it could have gone one or two ways. It was amazing how he protected me in that way.”

POCHO THE CROCODILE

Costa Rican fisherman Gilberto ‘Chico’ Shedden first found Pocho the crocodile injured from a gunshot wound on the banks of the country’s Parismina river in 1991.

He had been shot in the left eye by a cattle farmer and was close to death, and weighing only a skinny 160lbs.

But Gilberto nursed the reptile back to health, feeding him with chicken, fish and medicine, simulating the chewing of food with his mouth to encourage the croc to eat and and even sleeping with him during his recovery.

After Pocho returned to health, Gilberto released him to a river near his house in Siquirres to return to nature – but the next morning, he discovered that the crocodile had followed him home and was sleeping outside his balcony.

After that, he never left again and become a member of Gilberto’s family, along with his second wife – his first wife left him because of the reptile.

Gilberto would play and swim with the huge croc, and the two would perform in the water for tourists every Sunday, until Pocho’s death from natural causes in 2011. He was given a human-style funeral with thousands attending his wake and burial.

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