Heart-breaking pictures have emerged of the moment a giraffe said goodbye to a terminally ill zoo worker, who had spent most of his adult life cleaning the animal’s enclosures.
Zookeeper Mario spent 25 years looking after these majestic creatures. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with a ᴛᴇʀʀɪʙʟᴇ ᴅɪsᴇᴀsᴇ, but he wanted to spend the last moments of his life in the company of his favorite animal, the giraffes.
However, when the Ambulance Wish Foundation brought Mario to the giraffe enclosure at Rotterdam’s Diergaarde Blijdorp Zoo, nobody would have expected a reaction like this. The 54-year-old was wheeled into the enclosure on his hospital bed. The animals gathered around their beloved friend, sensing something is wrong with Mario. Then, suddenly the giraffes started to comfort and kiss the man who took care of them for so many years.
The Ambulance Wish Foundation, which transported Mario to the zoo, said Mario has little mobility and finds speaking very difficult.
“However, his face spoke volumes”, they said.
A lot of studies have shown that animals can sense si.ck.ness and ᴅɪsᴇᴀsᴇ in humans, including those with no visible symptoms.
“You could see him totally light up,” said Kees Veldboer, founder and director of Ambulance Wish Foundation. “It’s very special to see that those animals recognize him, and a sense that he isn’t doing well,” he told Rotterdam newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. “(It was) a very special moment. You saw him beaming.”