Friendship crosses all lines and barriers. It crosses sex, age, religion, locality, species and size. And just when you think you have seen the most unusual cross species pairing, along comes one to top it. And this one sure does. A king penguin found himself separated by his group off the Falkland Islands and started wandering across the island on a mission to get where he needed to be. Little did he realize that he was wandering across a field of wild horses at the Falkland Conservation, who, upon spotting the fine tuxedoed friend coming towards them, became curious as to what exactly it was.
And boy were the horses curious, says Sarah Croft, an officer with Falklands Conservation who had just finished feeding the herd when they spotted the little guy in the distance, waddling towards them, according to The Dodo.
"He caught all of their attention. From afar, the horses were just curious, but then the penguin got closer and some of the horses came in for a closer look," Croft said. "They've never seen a king penguin before, so I think they were quite fascinated with what it was."
The curious horses were not nervous around the penguin at all, despite never seeing a penguin, Little Things noted.
Since king penguins live far south, this was truly an unusual meeting. "You don't see horses and penguins overlapping very much. I think it's a uniquely Falklands encounter," Croft continued. "We have horses on the Falklands, and it's right in the northern range of the king penguin."
"At first I couldn't believe what I was seeing," said Croft, according to the Daily Mail. "I think the horses were as shocked as I was. I didn't think the horses would take much notice of the penguin but I couldn't believe how fascinated they were with it. I'm really enthusiastic about horses and penguins so it was an incredible moment to witness."
