It’s a pretty common view (and mostly heartwarming) for youngsters to develop deep, unique bonds with animals. However, those lovely experiences normally happens with pups or cats, and much less likely with wild animals. Therefore, a little kid sharing a special friendship with a huge stingray is definitely something you won’t see everyday.
On top of it, the boy’s unusual friend is living in the sea. But that doesn’t stop Joel to interact with his huge buddy. In fact, the little boy waits every morning on the dock for his friend to greet him. In exchange, the little human offers it some fresh fish!
The uncommon encounter happened in Grandmother Rey, a small fishing town with almost 4,000 habitants, in the Canary Islands, Spain. A quiet location where people still stay in a strong communion with wildlife. And because kids are also spending the days fishing on the steps near the village’s harbour, the bycatch usually goes back right into the waters, attracting huge marine animals, including stingrays.
Even though, seeing the little boy offering treats to such a huge gentle is certainly a view to behold. And fortunately, a tourist has captured the amazing moment on camera and uploaded it on Youtube. As expected the footage went viral as it got nearly 60 millions views so far.
Although, watching Joel feeding and petting his unlikely friend is heartwarming, you still need to know those are wild animals and although stingrays are not typically aggressive, one wrong move could be deadly.