From an elephant–Labrador duo to a Spaniel that takes care of lambs, we count 15 unusual
animal friendships!
15 – Tinni the Dog and Sniffer the Wild Fox,
• It’s a real-life version of Disney’s The Fox and the Hound!
Despite thousands of years of breeding and the social circumstances between them, Tinni,
the domestic dog, and Sniffer, a wild fox, have became the best of friends, and will
regularly meet and play together in a Norwegian Forest.
• Tinni lives with his owner, Torgeir Berge, who encourages the play dates and documents
them with his camera.
The experience caused Berge to rethink his stance on Norway’s fox-fur trade; he now
wishes to ban the hunting of foxes for their fur, and has published a book about the duo’s
adventures called The Fox and the Dog.
• The way these animals play together reminds us that perhaps wild and domestic animals
aren’t that different after all.
14 – Fox and Badger, • In the wild, badgers are a fox’s natural
prey, but it seems Billie the badger and Pixie the fox didn’t get the memo, as they’re
as close as two teenagers in a backseat.
• Billie, an abandoned badger found mauled in the wild, was placed in a fox enclosure
at the Secret World Wildlife Rescue Animal Sanctuary to toughen up and learn crucial
social skills.
There she met Pixie, a spritely fox, who became her closest friend and frolicking buddy.
• Eventually, Billie was deemed rehabilitated and reintroduced into the badger enclosure
where she belonged.
Billie still has regular play dates with Pixie and her surrogate fox family, though.
13 – Torque the Dog and Shrek the Owl, • A greyhound and owl have formed a bizarre
friendship at an animal centre.
• Shrek – an owl chick as well as a swamp ogre – was relocated from her enclosure
shortly after birth after keepers feared her stressed-out mother could eat her.
Head falconer John Picton decided to bring Shrek home with him.
Only problem was: John already owned a six-month-old greyhound pup named Torque.
• Fortunately, Torque happily adopted Shrek as his own daughter and the two have become
inseparable.
He is extremely protective of her.
Together they roam John’s home and often spend evenings curled up on the couch watching
British soaps like East Enders and Coronation Street.
12 – The Sled Dog and the Polar Bear, • Given the scarcity of prey in their frozen
homelands, polar bears will typically eat anything and everything they can get their
paws on.
Sled dogs, when they’re around, are one such tasty treat.
• German wildlife photographer Norbert Rosing was travelling the western coast of Canada’s
Hudson Bay when he spotted a polar bear on the scene within distance of his sled dogs.
• He was sure this would be the end of his dogs, but, to his astonishment, the bear began
to nuzzle one of the dogs and the dog returned the affectionate gesture by licking the bear’s
face.
• It was a remarkable, heart-warming display between two natural predators.
11 – Milo the Dog and Bonedigger the Lion, • Bonedigger is a 500-pound lion who looks
ferocious, but is really just a cuddly little kitty cat.
The regal jungle animal was born with a metabolic bone disease, which disabled him from an early
age.
• Fortunately, thanks to the GW Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma, this lion was given the
chance to live a worthwhile life.
The park has also helped him make some great, and rather unlikely friends.
• John Reinke is the park manager at GW and it’s through his intervention that Bonedigger
met his three tiny dachshunds: Milo, Bullet and Angel.
Milo is the ringleader and took Bonedigger under his wing when he was still just a lion
cub.
Five years on and the pair are still best buddies.
10 – The Chihuahua and His Baby Marmoset, • When a group of feisty marmosets refused
to play nice at a small Latin American zoo with an endangered animal protection program,
zookeepers took action.
To protect the youngest marmoset from harm, the keepers did what they thought was best:
they ostracised him from the group and gave him a Paris Hilton-style Chihuahua companion
named Sam.
• Fortunately, it paid off – every day since, Sam took the marmoset on Yoshi-style
rides outdoors to give him exercise and show his affection.
• Some days, Sam wasn’t up to taking the marmoset out, which isn’t surprising given
their slight weight differences.
On these days a zookeeper’s golden retriever took over.
Pooches gotta stick together.
9 – Fred the Labrador and Dennis the Duckling, • Things were looking pretty grim for Dennis
the duckling when it was discovered his mother had been mauled to death by a fox.
At less than a week old, Dennis would’ve died in the wild had he not been found and
rescued by four-year-old Fred, the Labrador, and forty-four-year-old Jeremy, the human.
• Dennis was brought back to Mountfitchet Castle, a restored Norman site, where hundreds
of rescued animals are homed.
The castle and its grounds are open to the public and have been in Jeremy’s family
for the last forty years.
• Incredibly, Fred the Labrador took an immediate liking to the duckling, cleaning
him with his canine tongue.
They’ve been buddies ever since.
The unlikely friends sleep, play and swim together.
• Apparently, Fred is like a doggy humanitarian.
It’s not the first time he’s helped take care of an orphan; he once adopted a baby
deer. 8 – The Springer Spaniel and Her Lambs,
• Meet Jess, the Springer Spaniel.
Jess likes chewing on bones, chasing pigeons and acting as a surrogate mother to several
orphaned lambs.
• Three times a day – rain, hail or shine – Jess goes out on milk rounds, feeding
orphaned lambs from a bottle she carries in her mouth.
• Jess’s owner, Louise Moorhouse, who has 270 sheep on her 180-acre farm, says she
can’t imagine managing without Jess.
• Apparently, all Louise did was teach Jess how to hold the bottle, then the pup took
over feeding duties instinctually.
• Louise’s farm, located near Exeter, is linked to the Devon Wildlife Trust and
specialises in rare-breed sheep.
Ten-year-old Jess is currently a mother figure to four Dorset Horn lambs that couldn’t
be fed by their own mothers.
• An apprentice – Lily the cocker spaniel – is already in training for when Jess decides
to hang up her bottle.
7 – Bea the Giraffe and Wilma the Ostrich, • Bea is a three-year-old giraffe and Wilma
is a ten-year-old ostrich.
They have plenty in common: both have long necks, beautiful gaits and are residents at
Busch Gardens’ Serengeti Plains exhibit.
Maybe it’s no wonder then that the pair has become inseparable.
• The two share a huge 65-acre enclosure, so aren’t forced to spend time together;
they actually do so willingly!
• Both ostriches and giraffes are naturally curious animals.
The park’s assistant curator Jason Green said that Bea likes to use her long tongue
to explore her surroundings, and that Wilma graciously puts up with these close encounters.
6 – Bubbles the African Elephant and Bella the Black Labrador,
• Bubbles is an African elephant and Bella’s a black Labrador.
The pair live side by side at Myrtle Beach Safari park USA.
• Bubbles was adopted by the park in 1983 after both her parents had been killed for
their ivory by African poachers.
In 2007, the park hired a contractor to build a pool for Bubbles.
When he left, he abandoned Bella the Labrador, so the safari park adopted her too.
• Despite the extreme difference in size, the two quickly became great friends.
• The two love playing together.
Bubbles enjoys throwing balls for Bella to fetch and Bella climbing all over bubbles
while Bella likes using Bubbles as a diving board!
5 – Anjana the Chimpanzee and Tiger Cubs, • Two white tiger cubs that were born during
a freak hurricane had to be separated from their mother when their sanctuary flooded.
The cubs since found an unlikely surrogate mother in chimpanzee Anjana, who has taken
on the role of caring for the cubs at The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species
(or ‘TIGERS’, to use its kick-arse acronym) in South Carolina.
• The two-year-old chimp helped her keeper China York care for the then 21-day-old cubs.
Monkey see, monkey do: Anjana mimics York’s behaviour by lying with the cubs and bottle-feeding
them.
She has genuinely formed a strong bond with them and cares for them as if they were her
own.
• Anjana has gone on to help China raise many different orphaned animals, including
lions, leopards and oragutans. 4 – Buck and Duck,
• New York locals were recently taken by surprise when a nesting mother goose living
at a Buffalo cemetery got an awesome unlikely bodyguard.
• For weeks, a majestic deer stood watch over the goose and her nest.
Male and female geese usually work together to guard their eggs, but it seems this mother
goose may’ve been a single mother.
• Thanks to this devoted deer, the mother goose and her eggs were well protected for
the duration of the incubation.
Even after the goslings hatched, the deer remained close by to chase off predators like
crows, preventing them from feasting upon the innocent baby birds.
3 – Suryia the Orang-utan and Roscoe the Blue Tick Hound,
• This unlikely duo met at a U.S. reserve for endangered animals and have since become
inseparable.
Roscoe the Blue Tick Hound apparently followed Suryia and her handlers home to their home
in Myrtle Beach, so they adopted him.
• Dogs are usually scared of primates, but Suryia and Roscoe became great friends in
no time.
• The two have captured the world’s attention, appearing on talk shows like the Oprah and
The Ellen DeGeneres Shows, and in National Geographic Magazine.
• The odd couple have even released a picture book capturing their unorthodox friendship
and were swarmed by young fans during their Georgetown book signing.
2 – Owen the Hippo and Mzee the Tortoise, • Owen and Mzee are a hippopotamus and Aldabra
giant tortoise duo that have formed a highly unusual bond of friendship.
They live in Haller Park, Kenya.
• Following a tsunami in 2004, Owen the hippo was separated from his herd as a juvenile
and brought to a nearby rescue centre.
With no other hippos to interact with, Owen immediately bonded with Mzee, whose large
domed shell and brown colour resembled an adult hippo.
• Their unusual friendship continued until 2006, when it was deemed that Owen was too
big to safely cohabit with Mzee.
• Maybe this is for the best, as the 130-year age difference couldn’t have left them with
all that much to talk about.
1 – Shere Khan, Baloo and Leo, • Although this practically defies logic,
it’s completely real.
Leo the lion, Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear were found together as cubs during
a police raid of an abusive drug baron’s home in Atlanta.
Baloo required surgery to remove a harness that had grown into his skin, causing deformities.
• The infant trio was moved to Noah’s Ark Rescue Centre in Locust Grove, where zookeepers
made the radical decision to keep them together.
• They are all still alive and well today, and play together in their very own habitat.
Visitors can watch the 1,000-pound bear, 350-pound lion and 350-pound tiger chill out, snuggle
and, of course, wrestle together.
Zoo co-founder Jama Hedgecoth says the animals are completely oblivious to the fact that
they aren’t natural companions.
• Because of what they’ve suffered together, the three best buds will likely be inseparable
for life.