It's time for some heart-warming stories about animal heroes. Have you ever been somewhere in the wilderness when something dangerous threatened your life? Maybe you survived because of the help of an animal hero! Animal heroes are animals that have saved humans or other animals from danger. Here are Kidzworld's Top 5 Animal Heroes.
Dolphins
Some people say that dolphins are the smartest animals on the planet. They are well-known for saving humans from shark attacks. There are many stories about people who are swimming in the ocean suddenly finding themselves being circled by a pod of dolphins, preventing a hungry shark from getting close. Here are some examples:
- October 30, 2004: in New Zealand dolphins saved lifeguards training of the coast of Whangarei
- August 2, 1996: A British tourist named Martin Richardson was saved by dolphins in the Gulf of Akaba
- August 28, 2007: A surfer was saved by dolphins in Monterey, California
There is a famous dolphin named Filippo in Italy. Filippo became famous for saving the life of a 14-year-old boy named Davide Ceci in 2000. Davide had fallen from his father's boat and Filippo pushed him back up to the surface before he drowned.
Gorillas
Binti Jua was a famous zoo gorilla in Brookfield, Illinois who saved the life of a little boy who fell from the top of a 20-foot wall. The boy hit his head and landed unconscious. Just before another aggressive gorilla approached the boy, Binti Jua scared him away and cradled the little boy to safety.
This exact same situation also happened in a New Jersey zoo in 1986, where a gorilla named Jambo rescued a little 5-year-old boy who fell of a high wall into the dangerous gorilla pit.
Elephants
In 2003 in Empangeni, Zululand, 11 elephants rescued a herd of antelope who were about to be killed by humans hunters. The elephants approached the large cage that the antelope had been captured in and one of the elephants went up to the locks. She carefully undid all the latches with her trunk, swung the gate open and stood back with her herd. The herd watched the antelope leave the cage and dart off before they walked off into the night.
Polar Bears
There is a polar bear named Tuk who used to live in Vancouver, Canada's Stanley Park zoo. In 1983 a young man threw a kitten into the polar bear's pool. Tuk rose, stretched, and then slid into the pool, surfacing moments later with the kitten held gently between his teeth. He then lay by the pool with the tiny kitten held protectively between his paws and licked it dry.
Dogs
Man's best friend... dogs! They have been in thousands of stories about rescuing and saving the lives of people and other animals. Dogs not only save people and animals from danger, but some dogs have jobs as firedogs and police dogs - these working dogs help firefighters and the police do their work.
