Watch The Penguin Who Swims 5,000 Miles To See His Human Pal Every Year

It’s a heartwarming story of friendship involving a pensioner and a penguin.

It began in 2011, when retired bricklayer Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, rescued a South American Magellanic penguin on a fishing village island off Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

The animal was starving and covered in oil, but after Mr Pereira de Souza helped it recover, the two became best buddies.

The penguin, named Dindim by its friend, comes back to see him for eight months every year.

It spends the rest of the time breeding in Patagonia off the coasts of Argentina and Chile.

The animal swims up to 5,000 miles just to live with Mr Pereira de Souza.

“I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,” Mr Pereira 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.”