Unlikely Friendships Read online

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  Copyright © 2011 by Jennifer S. Holland

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  Unlikely Friendships

  47 REMARKABLE STORIES from the ANIMAL KINGDOM

  by

  JENNIFER S. HOLLAND

  Workman Publishing, New York

  “If two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one be warm alone?”

  —Ecclesiastes 4:11

  Contents

  INTRODUCTION

  The African Elephant and the Sheep

  The Asiatic Black Bear and the Black Cat

  The Bobcat Kitten and the Fawn

  The Bobtailed Dog and the Bobtailed Cat

  The Cheetahs and the Anatolian Shepherds

  The Cockatoo and the Cat

  The Dachshund and the Piglet

  The Diver and the Manta Ray

  The Donkey and the Mutt

  The Duckling and the Kookaburra

  The Elephant and the Stray Dog

  The Ferrets and the Big Dogs

  The Golden Retriever and the Koi

  The Gorilla and the Kitten

  The Hippopotamus and the Pygmy Goat

  The Iguana and the House Cats

  The Leopard and the Cow

  The Lion Cub and the Caracal Siblings

  The Lion, the Tiger, and the Bear

  The Lioness and the Baby Oryx

  The Macaque and the Dove

  The Macaque and the Kitten

  The Mare and the Fawn

  The Monkeys and the Capybaras

  The Mouflon and the Eland

  The Nearsighted Deer and the Poodle

  The Orangutan and the Kitten

  The Orangutan Babies and the Tiger Cubs

  The Owl and the Spaniel

  The Owlet and the Greyhound

  The Papillon and the Squirrel

  The Photographer and the Leopard Seal

  The Pit Bull, the Siamese Cat, and the Chicks

  The Potbellied Piglet and the Rhodesian Ridgeback

  The Rabbit and the Guinea Pig

  The Rat and the Cat

  The Red Pandas and the Mothering Mutt

  The Rhinoceros, the Warthog, and the Hyena

  The Rottweiler and the Wolf Pup

  The Salty Dog and the Dolphins

  The Seeing-Eye Cat and the Blind Mutt

  The Sled Dog and the Polar Bear

  The Snake and the Hamster

  The Tortoise and the Hippo

  The White Rhino and the Billy Goat

  The Zebra and the Gazelle

  AFTERWORD

  THE AUTHOR, THE SWEETLIPS, AND THE PUFFER FISH

  REFERENCES

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  A lion cub and a French bulldog share a drink together at Twycross Zoo in the U.K.

  Introduction

  MY HUSBAND JOHN’S FIRST BEST FRIEND WAS A RACCOON. When a stray cat dropped the tiny fur ball into a neigh-bor’s boot, ten-year-old John became the creature’s caretaker, cupping it in the palms of his hands, dripping milk into its mouth with an eyedropper, and tucking it into a blanketed box at night, with a ticking clock to mimic a mother’s heartbeat. John named the animal Bandit, and the raccoon grew up following him every-where—as he left for school, to the dinner table, even into the shower. Bandit sat on John’s shoulder, shirt collar in its tiny grip and face into the wind, as the pair whizzed down the street on John’s bike. And the raccoon slept curled up on John’s pillow, cooing its animal dreams softly in the child’s ear. No word but friendship could describe the bond shared by boy and raccoon.

  It isn’t unusual for human beings to connect with other animals. Well over half of all U.S. households keep pets, spending more than $40 billion a year on their welfare. Studies show that encounters with pets can lower blood pressure, ease depression, and soothe the mental and physical pain of growing old—just a few of the countless ways animals enrich our lives.

  Less common than a human–pet connection, and at first glance more surprising, is a bond between members of two different nonhuman species: a dog and a donkey, a cat and a bird, a sheep and an elephant. The phenomenon is most often reported in captive animals, in part because we simply catch them in the act more often. But it’s also because, notes biologist and primate specialist Barbara King of the College of William & Mary, that’s where constraints are relaxed, where the animals aren’t fighting for their basic needs—which allows their emotional energy to flow elsewhere. Of course, there are cases of cross-species bonds in the wild, as well. “Most important,” King says, “we know animals, under whatever circumstances, have that capacity.”

  Not all scientists are comfortable using a term like friendship when referring to nurturing or protective animal relations. For many years, “animals were
to be described as machines, and students of animal behavior were to develop a terminology devoid of human connotations,” wrote primatologist Frans de Waal in The Age of Empathy. He himself has been criticized for attributing human traits to animals by biologists who believe “anthropomorphic anecdotes have no place in science.”

  Even those less averse to associating people-based ideas with nonpeople say we don’t know how much awareness exists between “friends” regarding their behavior. But behaviorists argue that declaring that there is none at all leans too far the other way. The famed primatologist Jane Goodall, who has described her own relationship with wild chimpanzees as friendships, said in a recent interview with me for National Geographic, “You cannot share your life in any meaningful way with an animal and not realize they have different personalities. Are their capabilities and emotions similar to ours? Absolutely.”

  On a Darwinian note, evolutionary biologist Marc Bekoff of the University of Colorado, who has written extensively on animal sentience, puts it like this: “Evolutionary continuity—a concept that came from Charles Darwin—stresses that there are differences in degrees rather than in kind between humans and other animals. That applies to emotions. We share many bodily systems, including the limbic system, where emotions are rooted. So if we have joy or sorrow, they have it, too. It isn’t the same joy or the same sorrow. But the differences are shades of gray, not black versus white.” Nurturing feels good to us, Bekoff says, so why wouldn’t it feel good across species?

  Feeling good is what this book is about. These stories represent just a small sample of the unexpected animal pairings that people have reported around the world. Dogs, not surprisingly, feature prominently: One dog mothers a baby squirrel, another parades around with chicks on his back, a third buddies up with an elephant, for example. But I have sought out a mix of species to reveal the wide reach of this phenomenon. I describe the unions as friendships, knowing that we can’t truly explain what emotional strings bind our nonhuman kin but assuming that there is some parallel to our experiences. To me, friendship is as simple as seeking comfort or companionship from another to improve one’s own life experience. Even if friendship is had only briefly, it is a plus. And in all of the cases that follow, the animals involved are arguably better off—more confident, physically stronger, in higher spirits—after finding each other than they were before.

  Though my focus is on pairs of nonhuman animals, during my research I stumbled across many extraordinary stories about people bonding with other species. That’s a subject for another book, but I picked a couple of favorites to include here in the mix.

  Why do unlike creatures get together? Often biologists can point to an obvious benefit to one or both animals related to spotting predators, keeping parasites at bay, staying warm, finding food. Scientists label such relationships with terms like commensalism or mutualism. This book is concerned with cases that are a little less tidy. Some involve an animal taking a parental or protective role toward another, probably instinctively. Others have no obvious explanation. Perhaps the need for a good friend is not just a human thing after all.

  What is human is to experience the awwwww factor of an ape hugging a kitten or a puppy nuzzling a pig. We are built to melt over soft, cuddly things (it’s one reason we can endure the stress of parenting a newborn). But the appeal goes deeper, Barbara King says: “I believe people crave examples not just of cuteness, and not just of tolerance—but of true compassion and sharing. These stories help us get in touch with the best in ourselves.”

  The author befriends a potato cod in Australia.

  {SOUTH AFRICA, 2008}

  The African Elephant and the Sheep

  AFRICAN ELEPHANT

  KINGDOM: Animalia

  PHYLUM: Chordata

  CLASS: Mammalia

  ORDER: Proboscidae

  FAMILY: Elephantidae

  GENUS: Loxodanta

  SPECIES: L. africana

  DOMESTIC SHEEP

  KINGDOM: Animalia

  PHYLUM: chordata

  CLASS: Mammalia

  ORDER: Artiodactyla

  FAMILY: Bovidae

  GENUS: Ovis

  SPECIES: Ovisaries

  At just six months of age, Themba the elephant suffered a terrible loss: His mother fell off a cliff while moving with their herd through the South African nature reserve where they lived. At such a critical time for mother–son bonding, veterinarians hoped another female in the herd would adopt the baby, but none did. So they decided to find a surrogate outside the elephant family to help Themba.

  Staff at the Shamwari Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Eastern Cape had been successful keeping a motherless rhinoceros with a sheep. Hoping for a similar triumph, wildlife managers moved Themba to the Rehabilitation Center and borrowed a domestic sheep named Albert from a nearby farm.

  Why a sheep? They might not seem like the brightest of animals, but in truth their intelligence falls just below that of pigs, which are quite smart. They can recognize individuals over the long term, can distinguish between different emotions based on facial expressions, and will react emotionally to familiar faces of various species. So bonding with other kinds of animals might not be so unlikely—especially with elephants, who are unquestionably bright and expressive, and rely heavily on social bonds.

  Still, the attempt to pair the two species didn’t start out well. When first introduced, Themba chased Albert around the watering hole, flapping his ears and lifting his tail to look as large and threatening as possible. Albert fled, as sheep instinct demands, and hid for hours. Over three days of wary gestures and tentative touches, the pair finally accepted each other, and the result proved well worth the stressful beginning.

  “I still remember the day Albert took the first leaves off a tree where Themba was feeding,” says Dr. Johan Joubert, the center’s wildlife director. “We knew they truly bonded when they started to sleep cuddled up together. I must admit, we were concerned that Themba would lie down on top of Albert and crush him by mistake!”

  Once the bond took hold, elephant and sheep were inseparable. They’d nap in tandem, horse around together, and Themba would rest his trunk on Albert’s woolly back as they explored their enclosure or went in search of snacks. Though keepers expected Themba to imitate the elder Albert, instead the sheep became the copycat, even learning to feed on Themba’s favorite leaves—from a thorny acacia plant not typically part of a sheep’s diet.

  Johan Joubert and his staff had always planned to reintroduce Themba to his family in the reserve where he was born. But during preparations for his release, Themba became ill from a twisted intestine and veterinarians were unable to save him. He was just two and a half years into what might have been a seventy-year lifespan.

  The staff at the wildlife center were heartbroken, though Albert, fortunately, was able to forge new interspecies friendships among the reserve’s zebra foals and wildebeest.

  {GERMANY, 2000}

  The Asiatic Black Bear and the Black Cat

  DOMESTIC CAT

  KINGDOM: Animalia

  PHYLUM: chordata

  CLASS: Mammalia

  ORDER: Carnivora

  FAMILY: Felidae

  GENUS: Felis

  SPECIES: Feliscatus

  ASIATIC BLACK BEAR

  KINGDOM: Animalia

  PHYLUM: Chordata

  CLASS: Mammalia

  ORDER: Carnivora

  FAMILY: Ursidae

  GENUS: Ursis

  SPECIES: Ursus thibetanus

  From the look of things, there’s something about these two glossy black mammals with matching perked-up ears and mellow attitudes that just says family. But the smooth-haired domestic cat and the shaggy Asiatic bear share little DNA. Dogs are more closely related to bears than cats are. So in the case of Muschi the cat and Mausschen the bear, blood ties don’t bind them. Something else keeps them together.

  No one at the Berlin Zoo, where Mausschen has been housed for over forty years, kno
ws where Muschi came from. “We observed her back in 2000 suddenly living in the black bears’ enclosure, and she’d struck up a friendship with the old lady bear,” says curator Heiner Klös. “It’s unusual to see this kind of relationship between two unrelated carnivores, and visitors love to observe them together.”

  Mausschen is the oldest known female Asiatic bear. She is a member of a medium-sized forest species whose wild habitat includes parts of Afghanistan, the Himalayas, mainland Southeast Asia, the Russian Far East, and Japan. She has spent her life well cared for in captivity. On any given day, she might be seen sprawled out in a bed of hay with Muschi by her side or lying with the cat in the sun, the two absorbing the day’s warmth together. They go halves on meals of raw meat, dead mice, and fruit. And during a period of separation, while the bear exhibit was renovated, the cat seemed troubled and waited around until she could be reunited with Mausschen. Zoo staff encouraged the reunion after seeing how content the animals were in concert.

  Muschi can come and go from the enclosure as much as she likes, “but she always comes back to the old bear,” Klös says. Their unusual relationship has lasted a decade, and there are no signs of a parting.

  {CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 2009}

  The Bobcat Kitten and the Fawn

  CALIFORNIA MULE DEER

  KINGDOM: Animalia

  PHYLUM: Chordata

  CLASS: Mammalia

  ORDER: Artiodactyla

  FAMILY: Chordata

  GENUS: Odocoileus

  SPECIES: Odocoileus californicus

  BOBCAT

  KINGDOM: Animalia