Interspecies Friendship

Submission 14,127

Part of a series on Animals. [View Related Entries]

About

Interspecies Friendship refers to the social relationships formed between members of different animal species. Online, media documenting these amiable associations are often shared in animal-related blogs, social media and discussions forums.

Origin

In December 2004, a hippopotamus nicknamed Owen was brought to the Haller Park rescue center in Mombasa, Africa, where he bonded with Mzee, an Aldabra giant tortoise.^[5] In January 2005, the site OwenAndMzee^[2] was launched to document the interspecies friendship. In 2006, caretakers separated the two animals due to fears that the hippopotamus could potentially harm the tortoise..

Spread

On November 9th, 2008, the Interspecies Friends blog was launched on Blogspot,^[3] highlighting photographs and stories of "unique animal friendships from around the world." On March 25th, 2009, YouTuber gormogon4927 posted a video titled "Unusual Animal Friends," featuring a slideshow of animals from a variety of species photographed together (shown below, left). On September 26th, the ABC News YouTube channel uploaded a news segment on interspecies friendship (shown below, right). Within seven years, the videos received over 2.2 million views each.

On August 10th, 2010, the Fuck Yeah Interspecies Friendships Tumblr^[6] blog was launched, showcasing pictures and videos of animals from various species interacting with one another. On October 4th, Wired^[4] published a listicle highlighting videos of interspecies friendships. On November 5th, 2012, the PBS YouTube channel posted a video about a deer who had been adopted by a Great Dane dog (shown below, left). On January 17th, 2013, the /r/unlikelyfriends subreddit was launched for pictures and videos of interspecies friendships. On May 24th, 2013, the Barcroft TV YouTube channel uploaded footage of a dachsund dog licking the face of a lion (shown below, right). Over then next four years, the videos garnered upwards of 3.1 million and 2.5 million views respectively.

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On October 20th, 2014, the Animalz TV channel posted a montage of clips featuring animals of different species interacting together (shown below, left). In two years, the video gained over 3.7 million views and 1,200 comments. On February 5th, 2015, the Android mobile operating system released a commercial titled "Friends Furever," containing footage of various interspecies friendships (shown below, right). Over the next year, the ad received upwards of 22.7 million views and 3,700 comments on YouTube.

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