Pararell world

The chief cameraman of this project is Tomas Hulik and the expert for wild animals is Milos Majda. From the very beginning of the shooting I was sure that this project will cost us a lot of effort and patience. But at the same time we all had an extraordinary feeling of enrichment only the mysterious world of nature can give one...

 

THE WILDERNESS IS CALLING

Milos found out that a wood cutter on the Muranska plateau found a wolf baby. He had enough experience to know how to raise a whelp without the help of its biological mother. He had already raised a small catamount at home and he could successfully let him out then, so that he was able to adopt in the wild nature. Milos and Tomas could provide us with a huge amount of special licenses, so we started to look after the little wolf baby. It was a she-wolf. She was two and a half months old and we gave her the lovely name Lila. The lonely whelp had no chance to survive in the woods. Milos began to teach her how to live in a wooden cottage. We hoped that in return Lila would help us shooting this movie. Our life started to dangle around her. We fed her, went for walking, she slept on our chests. When she was in the cottage, she slept at the window stool, so that she could watch the woods through the window. We used a string while going for a walk with her, but only to the woods. But when we returned, we had to carry her on our hands. She refused to make even a small step to the cottage. We found her a little friend - a baby wolf-dog. We found it very interesting that when the wolf-dog was walking in the cottage a very loud tramping could be heard. Lila, on the other hand moved like a ghost on the floor. She ignored the wolf-dog, concentrating only on the woods. After a month she escaped through the open door into the woods. Milos spent the whole night looking for her. One lonely night he heard the crying of the baby wolf. Lila was probably lucky that he found her....

 

SHADOWS OF THE WOODS

After the calamity in the wood of the Tatras the territories of the mountain animals changed a lot. After many years a pack of wolfs appeared in Javorova lowlands. The local gamekeeper Marcel who is directly living here, shows us photos of caught wild animals. It is obvious from these cases, that a wolf is hunting completely differently than it can be seen in the movies. Fairy tales and superstitions describe the wolf as a rather negative animal, but a wolf is in fact a very intelligent and social creature. He usually lives in pairs or in packs that can have even in winter eight members. There were never too many wolves in the Tatras and mostly he hunts ill and old animals, so in fact he makes a natural selection. In the case of deer it is obvious, that the pack slowly teases its victim, tries to injure it and then keeps waiting while its victim dies.

SHEPHERD’S COTTAGE

I went to chief shepherd Imre, because I have heard that bears tend to visit his cottage. And it was really true. Young bears that had to leave the territories killed one of his dogs. Imre is really a very kind man, who likes the mountains, sheep and the noise of bells of a flock of sheep. He is persuaded that his cottage is the most beautiful place on Earth. We ate some fresh cheese and started to talk about the wolf. The shepherd tells me how his sheep disappeared while tending them in the thin woods. The wolf comes closer to the sheep, he softly touches his skin and the sheep voluntarily leaves the shepherd’s cottage and goes to the woods with the wolf. She behaves like hypnotized. I could see the wolf coming closer to the empty sheepfold one autumn day. The sheepfold was protected by five dogs who did not allow anyone to come closer. They draw everyone away. At first the wolves were rolling in the dung of the sheep and then came closer to the dogs. They just looked at their old ancestor full of respect and esteem. They even let them to their bowls. The dogs were quiet until the moment the wolves got lost in the woods.

BEAR

It is very interesting to find out how the bear moves in his territory. It is done by the transmitter that can be found on the collar of the animal and a satellite evaluates their position. This research started during the last months in Slovakia. It is important that the bear must be caught into the container; he must be brought to sleep, must get a collar and has to be let out. If a bear is caught at first, they call a veterinary from one of the Slovak ZOO who gives an injection, so that the animal falls asleep. He prepares the exact dose that makes the bear in captivity asleep. But a bear in nature reacts differently on danger. He got a last sleeping-dose, but it did not help. He felt asleep after the third injection. As they opened the cave to give him the collar, the veterinary made sure that the animal was really asleep. As he opened his eye-lid, the bear unconsciously felt that he was in danger and made the whole crew to escape. Milos was invited to see the whole action. Then he said: „we were very lucky. But we won’t be able to come back in the next few years. A bear has a very good memory and he remembers exactly the people who hurt them in the past. The reason why a bear attacks a hunter is often paying of old scores“

LYNX

One sad day at the turn of winter and spring, Milos called and informed us that he found two fallen dears in a hardly accessible valley. According to the steps it could be deduced that the bear that woke up after the long winter, drew the deer from the heavy wet snow to the lake and broke their napes there. Because the bear has wider paws, the animals had no chance. We stayed there observing the rest of the deer, whether their odor attracts any beast. Suddenly a lynx appeared, walked very disinterested round the deer and started to devote himself to the insides that were only a few meters away. He laid flat in the insides and went back to the woods.