Bulgaria has its own Noah in the 21st century, who took rare animals under protection in his ship in order to survive. Our Noah is the brothers Sider and Atila Sedefchevi - graduate artists from the Art Academy. Sider lives in the Pirin village of Vlahi. Attila. is in Sofia and deals with the administrative part of the business. For the brothers this is both a mission and a business.
At the beginning of the 90s, the brothers decided to look for real Karakachan dogs. And along with the dogs, they revived a whole animal kingdom of disappearing breeds of dogs, goats, horses and Karakachan sheep.
But what are Karakachan sheep?
Here's Sider's explanation. A black lamb is born and remains black to dark brown for the first year. "Homer wrote that black lambs were born among the Thracians". Then it starts to lighten to dark gray brown, dark gray, gray. Some remain brownish, others completely gray. The herd is in pastel tones, as if an artist painted them. Only the faces remain black. The wool is harder, the hairs are in two layers and when it rains, the rain runs down the top layer, and the sheep remains dry. An outer garment of such wool can keep a person dry. Socks made of such wool do not break.
In the summer, 500 purebred Karakachan sheep graze not far from Mount Vihren, on the very ridge of Pirin, at an altitude of 2,700 meters. This is the highest mountain herd in Bulgaria.
Are there wolves there and who guards the great herd?
Guards are the famous Karakachan dogs. 50 Karakachan dogs. Unbelievable, but these dogs hardly ate meat. They could get by on one pan of kachamak a day for a whole week (kachamak is corn flour mixed with hot water).
Here's what Sider says: The Karakachan dogs are disciplined, strong, wise, calm, without nervousness, self-absorbed and self-initiated. Extremely attached to the herd. They can lie down for 2 hours, then suddenly become beasts and then be calm again; save their energy; don't bark for no reason.
All shepherds in the world would dream of such a dog. Is there interest in Bulgaria and abroad?
Yes, there were enthusiastic letters from America. They had never seen such an intelligent dog, never had such working dogs. They described how the dogs carried a newborn lamb lost from the herd, how they saved the owners of the house from a fire
Many Bulgarian villages have been depopulated and found grazing horses high in the meadows near Belmeken and the Batak dam. Now they have about 20 horses that lived freely, high in Pirin.
But there's even better news... about the beavers! Until 2.5 centuries ago, the beaver was distributed throughout Europe and northern Asia. But was killed for meat and skin and humans destroyed its habitat. They are engaged in construction - blocking streams and small rivers with trees to catch fish.
2 years ago, forest officials signalled "illegal logging". It turned out that the trees - willows and poplars - were gnawed in the specific "beaver" way, and thus the beaver was rediscovered. One of the cutest pictures I've ever seen is a mother beaver swimming on her back and on her belly is the baby beaver.
