July 13, 2018 – A fabulous find from Index.hr, and one more reason, perhaps, why Croatia beat England in the World Cup Semi-Final – check out a 5-year-old Luka Modric tending goats in the hills near his village with an attack from wolves imminent. Once you learn to do that during your kindergarten years, three lions are no problem. Text below by Pavle Balenovic, who shot the video.
From my childhood I was impressed by nature and animals. I admired the wild animals, wolves especially. As I started to travel, I gathered a decent knowledge and experience. I met people from the places where wolves lived. I remember the Nekic (Perila) family in the Velebit mountain … climbing from south, once I’ve taken their grandmother into my truck to help her get home, not to climb on foot. Grga, who, after schooling, stayed home continuing the traditional way of life on the mountain, often joined my wildlife tours.He mentioned cases when their goats and sheep disappeared overnight. Caught by wolves. Down to the south by the old stone road the house of Modric (Jasenice) was located.There I met Stipe one evening. Because of frequent loss of light while we were talking, due to the loose, wired contacts on his car battery that he used in the room I gave him my spare battery-operated lamp. That little gift was enough to begin our friendship.
A year later, there we recorded a sequence for my own documentary about the wolf attack. The idea was to reconstruct the frequent attacks on the cattle kept in the mountain from summer till the first snow. From long ago, the man occupied the wolf habitat and pushed his natural prey away. In order to survive the wolf began to rob human property, the livestock that was raised there in a fair number. Despite all there was no war between the wolf and man. It was expected that something must be left for wolves to take. But that creature was considered a pest, which caused extermination in many areas. My intent was to contribute to a better understanding of wolves and to change the negative attitude towards them. Stipe also seemed to think the same. So we organized and recorded the planned episode.
No harm or any pain to the animals used during the filming was done. The Modric family, they used to be quite decent, nice people. I visited them whenever I went filming the wildlife in the mountains. So I took the shots of my friend and his son collecting their herd of goats, closing the pen and some scenes directed as
It was planned for editing a wolf documentary. It was back in 1990 just awhile before the war destroyed their home. The war changed everything and I haven’t seen any more. They moved away. Then just a few years ago I got some information on who the small boy collecting his father’s herd in my episode is? That boy became a famous Croatian soccer player – Luka Modric. He haven’t seen these shots (taken back in 1989-1990) because this is the first time they are published. After the war a lot of mines were left what destroyed the image of whole the mountain area. Today the area changed even more. The construction of the new highway lasted a few years what ruined the peace the local wildlife needed to live in. The traffic made by tourists passing towards the coast took a part in that, too. Wolves are gone. People are gone. Recent climate changes, extreme hot summer and lack of human care caused fire in the environment. That moved wolves towards north where new cattle breeding projects are started. So, it happens that the wolf, protected by law as highly endangered species is not wanted there. There are ideas to limit achieved protection and reduce the numbers of wolves by killing. Money will decide how it will all finish as it is in most of important problems in our lives. But, as I mentioned, wolf is the symbol of real wilderness so is the symbol of the Velebit Mountains. Luka Modric, who spent whole his childhood in the wolf habitat and whole the younger generations after him must be proud of that fact. The Lika region is honoured by the name of wolf it got, the name of that magnificent creature whose home and natural habitat it has always been. (Greek – liekos/ lyk means – wolf) Pavle Balenovic-2017.
Click to watch the video (the video has been disabled to all external websites, so click on this link to take you to the original.
