In 2011 , a Brazilian man found a Magellanic penguin dripping with oil and starvation by his home on an island near Rio de Janeiro , Brazil . After cleaning him up and feeding him back to strength , an inseparable friendship was born .
When Joao Pereira de Souza , 71 , let the penguin back into the ocean , he recollect their path had strayed for good . However , to his surprise , the penguin generate to the island a few months later and accompany him back to his home base .
Every year since , the penguin spend eight months of the year on the Brazilian island with his new fellow traveller , only fall to the Patagonian coast in southerly Chile and Brazil to breed in spring . It ’s reported by theWall Street Journalthat this journeying is around 3,200 kilometers ( 2,000 miles ) .
De Souza , a retired bricklayer , has key out his unexampled pal JinJing .
“ I fuck the penguin like it ’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me , ” de Souza told Globo TV . “ No one else is allowed to touch him . He smack them if they do . He lays on my lap , countenance me give him shower , allows me to course him sardines and to pick him up . ”
According to theIUCN Red List , the Magellanic penguin ( Spheniscus magellanicus ) is categorized as near threatened mintage . While it ’s not unheard of for the penguins to transmigrate up to Brazil , there are few reports of mortal heading as far north as Rio de Janeiro in normal circumstances .
Mario Castro , a local fisherman , secernate theWall Street Journal:“The funniest thing is , the penguin might continue here for a workweek , then it will walk down to the beach and leaves . It spends 10 , 12 or 15 day , then comes back to the same theater , ”
verbalize toThe self-governing , biologist Joao Paulo Krajewski , who interviewed de Souza for Globo TV , said : “ I have never seen anything like this before . I believe the penguin believes Joao is part of his household and probably a penguin as well . When he sees him he wag his tail like a dog and chuck with delight . ”
