Penguin Swims 5,000 miles Every Year To Visits The Man Who Saved Him

In 2011, João Pereira de Souza, a retired bricklayer and part-time fisherman who lived on an island near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, discovered a South American Magellanic penguin covered in oil and and barely able to move, Magellanic penguins are native to the coasts of Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, and their colonies can extend as far south as the Falkland Islands. The oil had severely compromised the penguin’s ability to swim and hunt.

João took the bird, weak and helpless in his care naming him Dindim. It took him more than a week to completely clean the sticky oil off the penguin’s feathers. During this time, he fed Dindim fish, and brought him back to health over weeks. 

“I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,” Pereira de Souza said. “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.”

During their time together these two developed an extremely strong connection between them and the penguin even learned to make a noise that, to his rescuer, sounds just like “Joao.”

However, when the penguin was strong enough to swim back he took Dindim to the sea to release him. But the penguin- DinDim refused to leave.

“He wouldn’t leave, he stayed with me for 11 months and then just after he changed his coat with new feathers, he disappeared,” Souza said.

After staying with João for almost a year, Dindim eventually returned to the sea. But, much to Souza’s surprise, Dindim returned to the island a couple of months later. Now Dindim returns every year, traveling an estimated 5,000–8,000 kilometers (3,100–5,000 miles) to visit his friend.

“Everyone said he wouldn’t return but he has been coming back to visit me for the past four years,” Souza told the Independent. “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.”

Dindim spends 8 months with de Souza, and the rest the year breeding off the coast of Argentina, Chile and and the Falkland Islands, near South America’s southern tip.

Biologist Joao Paulo Krajewski, who interviewed de Souza for Globo TV, said, “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.”

The Magellanic penguins usually live for a period of 20 to 25 years, and the most interesting thing about them is their loyalty. They are known to stick with the same partner during most of their lives and return to the same spots where they nest year in and year out. It is probably this natural sense of devotion that makes Dindim’s bond with João so special.

It is truly heartwarming to know that Dindim travels 8,000 kilometers every year because he wants to be with his human friend who saved his life. This amazing bonding reminds us that acts of kindness and love create ripples that last forever. It’s proof that what we give to the world-whether to people or animals-always finds its way back to us.