Off the turquoise blue coast in the Maldives, the breathtaking marine life roll with the waves under the sea. Among the sea creatures are turtles, moray eels, clownfish, blue tangs, manta rays and sharks. Fang-toothed with large pectoral fins, sharks are known to strike fear or star in thrillers as villains, but on the contrary, there are a few that feature in love stories.

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After five years of exploring the world underwater, Mumbai-based Sushant Joshi’s goal was to educate people on the hazards of using plastic and its impact on marine life. On one of his dives under the House Reef, he found a nurse shark trapped in the remnants of a ghost net that was abandoned in the sea. With their cat-like snouts and strong jaws, nurse sharks are nocturnal creatures and attack only to defend themselves. But after retrieving the shark, Joshi saw unusual behaviour. “The shark kept blinking and moving toward me rather than get defensive,” says the 30-year-old PADI-certified scuba diver, adding, “Some sharks are quite affectionate and rub up against the diver.”

The stories here are far from the usual Valentine’s Day romances. It’s a different kind of love expressed.

Wild lovelife

White and brown spotted moray eels are considered to be the largest of their species. But their sharp teeth and serpentine bodies do not deter Joshi. “The moray eels show affection by coming closer and wiggling their bodies around us.” The giant manta rays or the gentle giants of the sea can grow up to 23 feet. Joshi identifies each by counting the spots on their bellies. “I have seen the same curious ray coming closer to me on numerous occasions like she was trying to say hello.”

Predator-prey friendships like that of Chito, a local fisherman from Costa Rica, and Pocho, an over 15-foot long crocodile are not uncommon. Closer home, in the villages of the Gadchiroli district, a hyena named Jasper is seen embracing his rescuer. “Hyenas have the strongest jaws in that, whatever bones and tough hides can’t be chewed by lions and others from the cat family, the hyena will devour within seconds. But Jasper is very loving,” says founder of Animal Ark, Dr Prakash Amte. The animal orphanage that started in 1973 with an abandoned monkey, now has 110 animals all living in close quarters to the Amte family. Through the years there have been unlikely friendships between the animals that are considered enemies in nature. “We had a fawn, a sloth bear, a leopard cub, a wild buffalo and a stray dog, who played together and had the best friendship,” recalls the 70-year-old.

Living next door to the wild, Prakash sustained a few injuries when the animals were trying to be playful. “Sometimes the sandpaper-like tongue of the leopard scratched me as he licked me all over,” he says. But he has no fear of the beings whom he considers a part of his family. “The so called 'cruel animals' like bears, hyenas, leopards and crocodiles that live here can kill me within a fraction of a second. It has been 46 years but none of these have tried to harm me or my family,” he says, urging people not to dwell on negative instances and characteristics of the wild.

(Jasper the hyena hugging Dr Prakash Amte, founder of Animal Ark in Gadchiroli)

Maternal bonds

Like Prakash, Dr Deepa Katyal, a veterinarian from Chembur, is another advocate for animal love from unexpected sources. “Monitor lizards are known to have big claws that they use to defend themselves but Lizzie grew fond of me. Nursing her, giving her food, she would never claw me. She used to recognise the sound of my voice and come to greet me.” After helping the egg-bound monitor lizard lay 21 eggs and looking after her for three months, Katyal learnt of the affection the animal was capable of. “Lizzie would constantly want to be near me. She wanted the feel of my leg against her body and I would take her in my arms and hug her.”

In her over two decade old practice, Katyal has rehabilitated snakes, monitor lizards and nearly 100 monkeys. One rainy day in June 2018, Katyal met Berry, a four day old monkey, trapped under her mother’s rotting carcass. Yet, her affectionate ways, much like the other rescues, don’t seem to evanesce. “Monkeys will kiss and hug you and do everything that a human baby does,” says Katyal. “Berry would cling to my leg at work and wouldn’t let go for hours. I even had to take her to places like the toilet and the bank,” laughs Katyal, who began using a baby harness for Berry.

A greater sulphur-crested cockatoo dances to entertain her human mom Lorraine More. He makes kissing sounds near her neck and cheeks, screams to get her attention and likes to have sips from her morning chai. “He loves poha and chai. He’s a Marathi boy like that,” laughs Lorraine, who crushes food in her mouth to feed the bird. The five year old cockatoo likes to climb to the top of everything and was named Tenzing after Tenzing Norgay, who scaled the heights of Mount Everest. 

“If there’s a group of people interacting with him, he will choose to be on the shoulder of the tallest person,” says Lorraine who's had Tenzing since he was a baby bird, hatched from an incubated egg. His lemon yellow crest is eye-catching against his pure white feathers, while the band around one of his feet conveys he was not captured from the wild. Lorraine has had to “bird proof” her bedroom, where Tenzing mischievously dismantles her mobile phone and removes her sim card.

In the company of many a feathery friends, Lorraine concludes, “Birds are very smart and are capable of showing emotion other than mimicking sounds. These creatures have a strong emotional streak in them.” The attachment between them is evident when Lorraine is away on holiday. Tenzing sits quietly besides occasionally flying from perch to perch in a closed aviary. “One evening my daughter-in-law played jazz around the same time that I play music. When he heard this, he thought I had come back and started calling out. “Hello, hello, are you there?”” After a week long separation when Lorraine was admitted in the hospital on contracting dengue fever, she returned exhausted. As she held Tenzing, who rested his head on her chest, they drifted off into a deep sleep. “I woke up with the realisation that he must be up to some mischief but he just lay there, in sync with my breathing, watching me sleep. He missed me and sensed that I was unwell.”

Unusual connect

Lorraine, 63, is also the mother of Rohan More. The duo started Japalouppe, an equestrian centre named after one of their horses that also houses other rescues. Their capacious lawns in Talegaon, on the outskirts of Pune, was also the setup for a budding love story between a donkey and a sheep. “We adopted Candy the donkey and around the same time rescued a sheep called Woolwool. They instantly bonded and came to be the Valentine sweethearts of Japalouppe,” says Rohan. The two would do everything together, spending at least half a dozen years in each other’s company. Along with prancing around the wide open acres of the farm, Candy and Woolwool would eat, sleep and play together. “Candy was the protective one,” recalls Rohan as he narrates one of the rescue stories. “Once, Woolwool was being chased by a pack of stray dogs in the neighbouring compound. There was a lot of barking and howling. And by the time we tried to figure out what was happening, Candy rushed to her aid, biting and kicking the dogs away.”

But, not all love stories end in ‘happily ever after’. During 2017’s monsoon season, Woolwool died of an infection. The passing of her companion took a grave toll on Candy who refused to eat and lost a lot of weight after the passing of her friend. “We had to put Candy on medication for nearly two months after Woolwool died. She started freaking out, running around, crying and calling out to her friend, who was no longer with us,” Rohan says.

Candy’s and Woolwool’s love story, may not be remembered with the greats, but it certainly gives us a glimpse into the wide ranging spectrum of emotion of sheep, donkeys and others. As Gadchiroli's Prakash reiterates, “All animals understand the language of love.” Here’s hoping we understand it too.