The famous Croatian stork couple has been making international headlines in recent weeks – some love from the French press on April 17, 2018
Klepetan and Malena, the legendary stork couple from Brodska Varoš, can basically be called a household name at this point. For more than ten years now, the Croatian public has been keeping an eye on their relationship – the male stork Klepetan migrating to Africa each winter, then returning to his beloved mate Malena in spring.
It’s truly a love story for the ages: Malena, a female stork who had her wing injured some 20 years ago, has been contained to her nest in Brodska Varoš ever since. And yet, her companion is nothing but loyal; even though he sets off for a 14.000 km route to Africa every year, he always makes it back to his nest in Croatia, reuniting with his beloved. The couple is looked after by a local named Stjepan Vokić, who’s been taking care of Malena for the last 15 years.
The famous stork couple has now caught the eye of international press: a couple of days ago, Agence France Presse published a story about Klepetan and Malena. They reported on this unique pairing and their human keeper, mentioning the couple has produced 62 baby storks thus far. Mr Vokić has even introduced a special heating system to Malena’s nest; as she’s not able to fly to Africa on her own, he decided to bring ‘an improvised Africa’ to her.
As we’re obviously fond of great avian love stories, we can’t resist to return the favour, so we’ll pay some love to two French storks that decided to shout their love from the rooftops, quite literally: a few weeks ago, the Opéra National De Lorraine in Nancy was visited by a stork couple who carried out their mating routine on the roof of the Opera building:
Quite a show, worthy of the venue where it took place.
