Penguin Swims 5,000 Miles Each Year for Reunion With Man Who Saved His Life

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A penguin swims 5,000 miles each year to reunite with a man who saved it.

A South American Magellanic penguin swims the journey annually to meet with a retired bricklayer and part-time fisherman, Joao Pereira de Souza. He lives on an island outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A few years ago, he found the penguin covered in oil and near death.

De Souza cleaned the oil off the penguin’s feathers and gave him fish to help revive the bird, whom he named Jinjing, according to The Wall Street Journal.

When he tried to release the bird back into the wild, it wouldn’t leave.

“He stayed with me for 11 months and then, just after he changed his coat with new feathers, he disappeared,” he said.

A few months later, Dindim came back, spotting the fisherman on the beach before following him home. This has become a tradition. Jinjing usually spends eight months of the year with de Souza before going back to the coast of Argentina and Chile.

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