Five-year-old Smooshi the walrus has developed an inexplicable bond with 28-year-old Demers, and her attachment is baffling marine biologists and animal behaviour experts.
Demers wasn't the first trainer Smooshi worked with after arriving at Marineland from Russia about four years ago. Nor was she a newborn who had confused Demers with her mother. So why she has attached herself to him remains a mystery.
Smooshi follows Demers everywhere, jealously pushing away anyone who gets close to him, and "cries" in her walrus way whenever he is out of her sight.
Demers says he doesn't know why Smooshi loves him and "smooshes" herself against him (hence her name). He insists he didn't train Smooshi this way, nor did the feeding of fish have anything to do with it. In fact, he says, he makes sure the other trainers feed her so she takes notice of them too.
And Smooshi and Phil have their own MySpace page.
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