Stork flies 13,000kms every year to reunite with his wounded soulmate

As a young bloke, you may well have been big into wildlife. You might have had all sorts of encyclopaedias and you might have watched every single David Attenborough documentary that appeared on the television. But, we still reckon you might not be as keen on your wildlife as the Croatian bloke who’s made the sexual escapades of a couple of storks his life’s work.

Anyway, whether or not you’re as keen on wildlife as Croatian bloke Sstepan Vokić, you might know that storks are one of those animals that mate for life.

Or so we’ve been told.

And we have been told. Matter of fact, you may have read that when a stork’s mate dies, they kill themselves by repeatedly beating their head against a tree.

Yeah, you’re damn right that’s some bloody dark shite to be putting into kids’ wildlife books, but we read that and remember thinking, ‘Crikey, that’s messed up.’

Credit: The Dodo

Anyway, we don’t know about the whole stork suicide thing, but what we do know is that storks will stay together and keep their porking monogamous.

Credit: The Dodo

And that is something that bloody Sstepan has taken advantage of. You see, some twenty-five years ago, he rescued a stork that had been shot by hunters and named her Malena. After five years of having Malena in his care, a male stork made the long migration back from Africa and got a bit frisky with Malena. Sstepan named him Klepetan.

Credit: The Dodo

In the years that followed, Sstepan continued to welcome Klepetan and thoroughly enjoyed the fact that he and Malena made some 62 babies together. When August would rock around, Klepetan would bugger off back to the warm climate, but Malena – whose never flown since her accident – would stay behind and spent her winters with the man who rescued her.

Credit: The Dodo

Now, we don’t know exactly what Sstepan would be doing while Klepetan and Malena reacquainted themselves, but we kinda reckon he just stood there grinning. Of course, it does bear mentioning that old mate is a widower. While that might sound kinda cute, how do we know he’s not living vicariously through these storks?

Credit: The Dodo

Still, some good has come out of it. Desperate to keep seeing Klepetan come and give his pet stork one, Sstepan has joined the fight to curtail the hunting of storks along their migration routes. As a result, his work to raise awareness of the fact two million storks are killed on these routes every year means that millions of Croatians tune into a livestream to witness Klepetan’s return!

Final thought: Obviously, we make jokes about Sstepan’s intentions. In all honesty, though, we reckon this is bloody grouse. Nature is friggen awesome and the fact Sstepan has rescued Malena – and seen her contribute so much to her species – is bloody commendable. Good stuff, Sstepan. Good stuff indeed!

Just in case you missed it, here’s one of Ozzy’s latest commentary videos…Ozzy Man Reviews: Belle Delphine

Video Link: The Dodo