Whenever we hear anything about love, we can think of no other than our beautiful feathered friends. Human beings cannot even dream of bonds that these creatures share with each other. Take Swan for example. We all know that Swans have only one partner for their entire life and if one of them dies, the other one could in fact die of heartbreak. They mate with the same partner till the bond is broken because of death. It will not be wrong saying that they have so much to teach us about courtship! Much like a recent one which once again proved how strong love actually is and Twitterati is spellbound. The remarkable love story of two long-legged birds from the Eastern European country, Croatia which continues to grow strong from the last 16 years as Klepetan arrived back home on April 13, 2018.

The faithful couple’s long-distance relationship has made them celebrities in Croatia. The love story of storks Klepetan and Malena has captured the hearts of many. They made their nest on a chimney in Brodski Varos in Eastern Croatia more than two decades ago. They could fly together until poachers injured Malena’s wing. A local school caretaker Sthepan Vokic, a 71-year-old widower adopted Malena in 1993 when he found her near a pond, injured by a shot from hunters. Yes, this one is of love and devotion beating all the odds.

Now you must be thinking instead of flying thousands of miles every year, why doesn't he stay with Malena in Croatia! Well with storks being a migrated bird, they have no choice. They are bound to move from one location to another because the food they eat is typically seasonal and also they cannot stand winter, so they fly towards South mostly where it is summer.

Watch the video of Malena and her caretaker! 

We need more humans like Sthepan Vokic.

Yup, some are!

Every winter for the last 16 years Klepetan would leave Croatia and make his way more than 13,000 kilometre to the warmer climates of Africa. On the other hand, Malena spends winter in a storage building in what Vokic calls an “improvised Africa” with a nest, heating and aquarium.

In Spring Vokic makes a gigantic nest for Malena on the building’s roof. The pair already have 62 baby storks. Klepetan, the father stork, teaches his baby storks to fly before migrating with them in early August to southern Africa. And Malena stays with Vokic, who bathes her and puts cream on her feet to stop them drying out, as she is away from her wetland habitat.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 14, 2018 11:11 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).