THE SEX ISSUE
Y
LOVE
OVER LEBANON
The long-distance love story of the lovestruck storks Klepetan and Malena
has captivated a nation. But now, conservation heroes both outside and within Lebanon
are fighting to ensure Klepetan doesn’t become another sad statistic
Alex Dale
ou could set your clock to Klepetan.
Over a million Croatians watching via
live stream already do. Every year, for the past
15 years, Klepetan, a male White Stork Ciconia
ciconia returns to the same red-tiled rooftop
in Brodski Varoš, a small Croatian village near
the Bosnian border. Except last year, Klepetan
was late. Six days late. Normally, he returns on
March 24th, give or take a day, but it was now
March 30th, and his partner, Malena, was cast-
ing a lonely figure as she waited patiently for her
beau to return.
But then, at 4:40pm, Klepetan dramatically
swooped into view of the livefeed camera, reu-
niting the two lovebirds after months apart and
sending the nation into rapturous joy.
But what is it about this particular pair of storks
that resonates with the Croatian public above all
others? Perhaps it’s because their relationship
has to endure something that most lovers will
be familiar with at one point or another in their
lives – distance. Klepetan, you see, has to
make the long, arduous
8,000 km trip to South
Africa alone every win-
ter. Malena was ille-
gally shot in 1993, and
hasn’t flown properly
since. Luckily for her,
she was discovered at
the side of the road by a
school janitor, Stjepan
Vokic, who treated
her wounds and
has looked after her
ever since – building a
makeshift nest on the
roof of his house for
her, and providing shel-
ter for her during the cold winter months.
It was while she was enjoying the roof nest
one day 15 years ago that she was spotted and
wooed by Klepetan, and the pair have been
inseparable since (most of the year, anyway).
Over the years, the lovers have reared dozens
of chicks. But come the winter, Klepetan flies
south to Africa with the other storks, leaving his
flightless partner behind. When the birds return
in the spring, Vokic, and the hundreds of thou-
sands of people glued to the livestream, face an
anxious wait to see if Klepetan has survived his
perilous journeys. Migratory birds brave numer-
ous threats every time they embark on their epic
travels – from storms to starvation, predators to
power lines. But there’s one particular stretch of
Klepetan’s journey that has his supporters par-
ticularly concerned – a 160 km stretch that takes
Klepetan over Lebanon.
The African-Eurasian Flyway – one of the most
important migratory routes for birds in the world
JUNE 2017 • BIRDLIFE
MALENA WAS
ILLEGALLY SHOT
IN 1993 AND
HASN’T FLOWN
PROPERLY SINCE
The letter sent
to Lebanon’s President,
Michel Aoun.
Photo Stjepan Vokic
1
White Stork,
Ciconia ciconia.
Photo Walter Soestbergen/
Agami
2
AS ONE OF THE
LARGER MIGRATORY
BIRDS, STORKS
ARE AN OBVIOUS
TARGET FOR
POACHERS
– runs straight through Lebanon, and it is here
that the journey ends for around 2.6 million birds
as they are felled from the sky by irresponsible
hunters. As one of the larger migratory birds,
storks are an obvious target for poachers, and
this year the issue of Klepetan’s safety is particu-
larly poignant, with the news that a male stork
called Tesla – one of two storks fitted with GPS
trackers in Croatia for research purposes – met
his end in Lebanon this past April.
Vokic is so concerned about Klepetan’s wel-
fare that he has taken the extraordinary step
of writing a letter to the President of Lebanon,
Michel Aoun – using a pen fashioned from one
of Klepetan’s own feathers – a symbolic ges-
ture that the feather is mightier than the sword.
The heartfelt letter was delivered to Aoun in a
box containing the very same feather used to
write it – which Vokic urges Aoun should use
to pen
a law offering stronger protection
for birds during the critical migra-
tion seasons.
An excerpt from the letter says:
“In my country, there is a belief
that storks bring children and
that they bring new life.
These two storks are my
whole life. You do not
have to believe in sto-
ries for little children,
but you can believe in
the fact that in Cro-
atia every spring, via
live stream camera,
over a million people
await Klepetan’s return,
and that the moment brings happiness and joy
– reminding many of what love means and what
it means to love.”
Fortunately, Klepetan and his kind have many
allies within Lebanon – including none less
than the President, Michel Aoun. A former bird
hunter himself, Aoun began to change his views
on the practice after hearing news of sniper fire
in Beirut in 1975. Mentally, he began to join the
dots between humans killing out of anger and
humans killing for sport, and ever since, he has
endeavoured to deepen his understanding of
the natural world.
In early April – just days after Klepetan swooped
into view on a million screens – Aoun delivered a
passionate appeal to the Lebanese people to put
the country’s nature first. “It is a shame to turn
Lebanon into a wasteland without plants, trees,
birds and sea animals, and cutting off trees to
erect buildings is a major crime”, he said. “There
should be a peace treaty between Man and the
tree as well as Man and birds, because we con-
tinue to transgress upon them.”
29