Several months later, de Souza was shocked to see Dindim back on the island. Dindim immediately recognized his rescuer and instantly waddled in his direction.
“I love 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 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.”
Dindim spends eight months out of the year with his pal and the rest of the time breeding off the coast of Argentina and Chile — swimming about 5,000 miles in between the two locations.
“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,” de Souza said.