‘I love the penguin like it’s my own child’: Dindim swims over 8000km a year to return to human soulmate

PENSIONER Joao Pereira de Souza rescued the bird from death. Dindim the penguin now swims over 8000km to see him each year.

INCREDIBLE photos show the heartwarming friendship between a penguin and the Brazilian pensioner who saved his life four years ago.

Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, found a South American Magellanic penguin covered in oil on an island off the Rio de Janeiro coast.

The retired bricklayer nursed the penguin — who he named Dindim — back to health, taking a week to get the sticky black residue from the bird’s feathers.

Once Dindim was well again, Mr de Souza released him back into the wild, expecting his new feathered friend never to return.

But a few months later, to Mr de Souza’s amazement, Dindim returned to the beach where he was found and recognised his former carer and returned home with him.

It is believed Mr de Souza’s feathered pal swims around 5000 miles (8000km) to visit the part-time fisherman where he spends eight months of the year before returning to breed of the coast of Argentina and Chile.

Sweet friendship ... Joao Pereira de Souza says he loves the penguin ‘like it’s my own child’ Picture: Supplied

Mr de Souza told Globo TV: “I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me.

“No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, let’s me give him showers, allows me to feed him sardines and to pick him up.

“I’m flattered Dindim is happy to exchange his home with thousands of other penguins every year to find his way here to spend one-to-one time with me.

“It’s a very special relationship.”

Gutsy diver ... Dindim spends eight months of the year with the Brazilian pensioner. Picture: Supplied

Biologist Joao Paulo Krajewski, who interviewed Mr Pereira de Souza for Globo TV, told The Independent: “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.”