Tortoise adopts a tiny bunny, proving even so-called rivals can be pals

Admit it: It's hard to resist the sweetness of an interspecies friendship.

Take this tortoise named Wamba who's somehow become best buddies with a tiny "hare" in their short time together.

Bucking the age-old fable about the two animals being rivals, the cottontail bunny made its way into the tortoise's warm shelter during a cold night. It was a safe place for the bunny, who had plant matter stuck around its neck.

Both reside at The Ritz-Carlton at Dove Mountain in Arizona, and photos of the pair were shared on the hotel's Facebook page. The tortoise could've kicked the bunny out, but instead, it did the opposite.

"Wamba could have scared the bunny away, but she accepted him," Ron Brink, the hotel's lead ranger, told The Dodo.

As a ranger helped to clear the grass and weeds wrapped tightly on the bunny's neck, the tortoise grunted and groaned as it was taken away from its new best friend.

It was "a clear demand" for it to be returned with its tortoise buddy, according to the hotel's Facebook post.

The bunny is apparently in much better shape, after receiving care from rangers and of course, Wamba the tortoise.

"The little bunny just needed some comfort, and Wamba provided that," Brink told the publication. "It's incredible."

Correction: An earlier version of the article referred to the bunny grunting and groaning, not the tortoise.