--- title: This Baby Giraffe and Baby Elephant Are Best Friends description: There is nothing better than an inter-species friendship canonical: https://time.com/4088776/baby-giraffe-baby-elephant-best-friends/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-27T21:25:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:58.362Z og:title: This Baby Giraffe and Baby Elephant Are Best Friends og:description: There is nothing better than an inter-species friendship og:url: https://time.com/4088776/baby-giraffe-baby-elephant-best-friends/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Baby Giraffe and Baby Elephant Are Best Friends twitter:description: There is nothing better than an inter-species friendship twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Baby Giraffe and Baby Elephant Are Best Friends ## Video: Inside the Canine Mind [Watch (HLS stream): Inside the Canine Mind](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dTemQHb7.m3u8) (2:08)  _Published 2009-09-11. Professor Brian Hare at Duke University studies people's pet dogs to understand how canines think_ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 27, 2015 9:25 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 27, 2015 9:25 PM UTC On the surface, Kiko and Loboito have little in common. Kiko is tall and gangly and a bit shy, while Loboito is boisterous with stubby little legs and a ridiculously long nose. But their differences haven’t stopped them from striking up an adorable friendship that can warm the cockles of any heart. Kiko is a one-month old reticulated giraffe who was rescued by Kenya wildlife workers after his parents were killed. When he was brought to the animal sanctuary, he was still too small to sleep with the other giraffes. Instead he was housed next to the elephants, and it was there that he met Loboito, a three-week old orphaned elephant calf. The two orphans struck up an unlikely, inter-species friendship that makes it feel like everything is right in the world. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4088776/baby-giraffe-baby-elephant-best-friends/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4088776/baby-giraffe-baby-elephant-best-friends/"},"headline":"This Baby Giraffe and Baby Elephant Are Best Friends","datePublished":"2015-10-27T21:25:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:02:58.362Z","description":"There is nothing better than an inter-species friendship","url":"https://time.com/4088776/baby-giraffe-baby-elephant-best-friends/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","Elephant"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4088776/baby-giraffe-baby-elephant-best-friends/","name":"This Baby Giraffe and Baby Elephant Are Best Friends"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Inside the Canine Mind","description":"Professor Brian Hare at Duke University studies people's pet dogs to understand how canines think","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/dTemQHb7/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2009-09-11T01:23:04.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dTemQHb7.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4088776/baby-giraffe-baby-elephant-best-friends/","duration":"PT2M8S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4088776/baby-giraffe-baby-elephant-best-friends/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```