Croatia’s Secret Animal Paradise | Free Documentary

Every year in the middle of Croatia, like clockwork, nature repeats itself: after the annual snowmelt, a huge flood wave spills out of the Alps toward Zagreb and Belgrade. This leads to an increase in the River Sava’s water levels of some ten meters. The contents of more than ten billion bathtubs floods an area the size of Lake Constance, often for months on end, yet the Croatian and Serbian capitals are spared a flood disaster. One of the reasons for this is the fact that the Sava is able to flow unhindered. The annual floods create a natural retention reservoir for flood control: bordering the Sava is a natural paradise, exceptional in Central Europe. In the species-rich, alluvial flood plains of the last major meadow landscape of the continent, enormous predatory fish like the catfish lie in wait for prey. Fish catch birds. Birds catch fish. Horses bath in the waters. A riotous paradise with an abundant and diverse animal life. A rare view that shows what natural floodplains mean, when nature takes pre