{"id":13384,"date":"2024-03-30T08:19:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T08:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/30\/a-stork-a-fisherman-and-their-unlikely-bond-enchant-turkey\/"},"modified":"2024-03-30T08:19:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-30T08:19:05","slug":"a-stork-a-fisherman-and-their-unlikely-bond-enchant-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/30\/a-stork-a-fisherman-and-their-unlikely-bond-enchant-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"A Stork, a Fisherman and Their Unlikely Bond Enchant Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/03\/30\/multimedia\/30turkey-stork-01-promo\/30turkey-stork-01-ckph-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"A Stork, a Fisherman and Their Unlikely Bond Enchant Turkey\" title=\"A Stork, a Fisherman and Their Unlikely Bond Enchant Turkey\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Thirteen years ago, a poor fisherman in a small Turkish village was retrieving his net from a lake when he heard a noise behind him and turned to find a majestic being standing on the bow of his rowboat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Gleaming white feathers covered its head, neck and chest, yielding to black plumes on its wings. It stood atop skinny orange legs that nearly matched the color of its long, pointy beak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The fisherman, Adem Yilmaz, recognized it as one of the white storks that had long summered in the village, he recalled, but he had never seen one so close, much less hosted one on his boat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Wondering if it was hungry, he tossed it a fish, which the bird devoured. He tossed another. And another.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">So began an unlikely tale of man and bird that has captivated Turkey as the passing years \u2014 and a deft social media campaign by a local nature photographer \u2014 have spread the pair\u2019s story as a modern-day fable of cross-species friendship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The stork, nicknamed Yaren, or \u201ccompanion,\u201d in Turkish, not only returned to Mr. Yilmaz\u2019s boat repeatedly that first year, the fisherman said, but after migrating south for the winter, returned the next spring to the same village, the same nest \u2014 and the same boat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last month, after Yaren appeared in the village for the 13th year in a row, the local news media gleefully covered his arrival like the springtime sighting of a Turkish <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/02\/02\/us\/groundhog-day.html\" title=\"\">Punxsutawney Phil<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The pair\u2019s story has brought unexpected fame, although no serious fortune, to Mr. Yilmaz, 70, and Yaren, estimated to be 17. They have co-starred in a children\u2019s book and an award-winning <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/praguefilmawards.com\/films\/yaren\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">documentary<\/a>. A children\u2019s <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=j4ysTs4axM0&amp;ab_channel=YarenLeylek\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">adventure movie<\/a> featuring a cameo by Mr. Yilmaz (and a digital rendering of the stork) is expected to debut in cinemas across Turkey this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Stork lovers everywhere can watch Yaren and his partner, Nazli, or \u201ccoquette\u201d in Turkish, as they preen, contort their necks, clack their beaks, renovate their nest and occasionally mate, thanks to a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yarenleylek.com\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">24-hour webcam<\/a> set up by the local government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis is not a tale. This is a true story,\u201d Ali Ozkan, the mayor of Karacabey, whose district includes the village, said in an interview. \u201cIt is a true story with the flavor of a tale.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The bird\u2019s celebrity has bolstered municipal efforts to increase local tourism with walking paths and coffee shops near the district\u2019s lakes and wetlands, he said. The area has developed a stork \u201cmaster plan\u201d to care for the birds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He initially faced some criticism from constituents who wondered why a mayor was getting involved with storks, he said. But now, residents call in when they notice damaged nests, and a friend from another city recently phoned him to complain that he could not see Yaren on the webcam.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The story has put Mr. Yilmaz\u2019s village of Eskikaraagac \u2014 population 235 \u2014 on the map, drawing groups of students and tourists who stroll its narrow streets to see the storks and take boat rides on neighboring Lake Uluabat. Many visitors seek out Yaren\u2019s nest, which sits on a platform atop an electric pole near Mr. Yilmaz\u2019s house, and act star-struck when they encounter the fisherman himself, peppering him with questions and posing for photographs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One recent morning, Mr. Yilmaz stood in the yard of his small, two-story house holding a tub of fish he had caught. In their nest overhead, Yaren and Nazli dozed, groomed themselves and filled the air with the percussive clacking of their beaks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cYaren!\u201d Mr. Yilmaz called.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Both birds glided down to the yard, and Mr. Yilmaz lofted fish into their beaks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey are full,\u201d Mr. Yilmaz announced after the birds had downed about two dozen fish. \u201cAfter 13 years, I can tell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Storks have long nested in the village, arriving in the spring and mating before migrating in the late summer toward Africa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Village elders recall when there seemed to be a stork nest on every roof and residents struggled to prevent the birds from swiping laundry from outdoor lines. But most people liked the birds, whose arrival right after pink flowers bloomed on the almond trees was a harbinger of spring. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ridvan Cetin, the village\u2019s elected authority, said a count in the 1980s found 41 active nests, meaning 82 storks, not including chicks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This year, the village has only four active nests, including Yaren\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cNow they are very few,\u201d Mr. Cetin said sadly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">No one in the village could recall a bond similar to that between Mr. Yilmaz and Yaren.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like it,\u201d Mr. Cetin said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For Mr. Yilmaz, a quiet man with leathery hands and a kind, rutted face, Yaren was a serendipitous addition to what he had hoped would be a late, restful chapter in an otherwise difficult life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He grew up poor. His father pulled him out of school to work in the fields and fish, no matter how cold the weather.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMy life was between the field and the lake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His mother died when he was 13. His father remarried when he was 17 to a woman Mr. Yilmaz did not like. So, with only an elementary school education, he fled to Bursa, the nearest big city, and worked in a factory that made yogurt and other milk products.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At 19, he married another villager he had known since childhood. They lost their first child, a daughter, weeks after her birth. He worked in different milk factories as he and his wife raised three other children, two boys and a girl.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 2011, with his children grown and living elsewhere with his five grandchildren, he stopped working, returned to the village and moved back into his childhood home, next to the lake where he had fished as a child.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt was my dream from the day I started working to go to my village and fish,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Soon after, the stork landed on his boat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Each time Yaren left, Mr. Yilmaz wondered whether he would return. But after a few years, he stopped worrying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI was sure that as long as I was alive, this bird was going to return,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Early on, no one much cared that Mr. Yilmaz had made friends with a stork. Other villagers teased him or said he was wasting his time \u2014 and his fish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That changed in year five, when Alper Tuydes, a hunter turned wildlife photographer who works for the local government, began sharing photographs of the pair on social media. The story spread, getting a lift each spring with Yaren\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The relationship of man and bird corresponds with known stork behaviors, said Omer Donduren, a Turkish ornithologist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Although storks avoid direct contact with people, they often roost near them, on roofs, in chimneys or atop electricity poles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The birds tend toward monogamy and display loyalty to their nests, parting ways with their partners to migrate, but rendezvousing in the same nest in the spring to reproduce.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That could explain why Yaren has roosted near Mr. Yilmaz\u2019s house year after year, Mr. Donduren said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Storks, which can live for more than 20 years in the wild and more than 30 in captivity, also have strong memories, enabling them to remember migration routes from as far north as Poland and Germany to destinations many thousands of miles south, as far as South Africa. It is unclear where Yaren spends his time after he leaves the village, but a tracker affixed to one of his offspring followed the bird over Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic before it stopped working.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Over time, Yaren\u2019s experiences with Mr. Yilmaz have probably become part of his memory, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cNature doesn\u2019t have much space for emotions,\u201d Mr. Donduren said. \u201cFor the stork, it is a matter of easy food. It thinks, There is an easy source of food here. This man seems safe. He doesn\u2019t hurt me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Yilmaz\u2019s explanation is much simpler.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt is just to love an animal,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are God\u2019s creatures.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One recent morning, Mr. Yilmaz rowed into the lake and pulled up his net, dropping small fish into the boat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cYaren!\u201d he called.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The stork took flight, did a loop to surveil the boat and perched on a lamppost near the bank.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cYaren!\u201d Mr. Yilmaz called again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The bird took flight again, finally alighting on the boat, where Mr. Yilmaz tossed him fish after fish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After a while, the stork lifted off, glided around the village and returned to his nest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThat\u2019s it,\u201d Mr. Yilmaz said with a satisfied smile. \u201cHe is full.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thirteen years ago, a poor fisherman in a small Turkish village was retrieving his net from a lake when he heard a noise behind him and turned to find a majestic being standing on the bow of his rowboat. Gleaming white feathers covered its head, neck and chest, yielding to black plumes on its wings. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/03\/30\/multimedia\/30turkey-stork-01-promo\/30turkey-stork-01-ckph-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6049,18821,18820,18819,15556],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13384"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13386,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13384\/revisions\/13386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}