Postojna Cave Park - Welcome to the official website

Starting today, you can watch the film The Big Problem – the first animated film in the Proteus and the Climate Change series – on the YouTube channel @SuperProteus. The film is in Portuguese and is available with subtitles in six languages, including English. It has been produced by the Brazilian studio Animar, known for the global hit Galinha Pintadinha (Little Speckled Hen).

The proteus (also known as the olm), the world-famous inhabitant of Postojna Cave, has taken on a new role: it has become the superhero of the Brazilian animated film and multi-layered project titled Proteus and the Climate Change (Proteus e a Mudança Climática). Brazilian writer and sociologist Dr Gustavo Gumiero, who currently lives in Italy, recently revisited Postojna Cave to present the animated film and the first book in his new trilogy aimed at today’s generation of children who care deeply about climate change and environmental protection.

In Gumiero’s story, Proteus is an unusual hero: bright and sensitive, witty and sarcastic, over 80 years old, but at the same time forever young. He would prefer resting to saving the world, but together with three children – Gabi, Ge and Titi – he bravely faces global challenges: climate change, environmental pollution and fake news. He explains to the children the causes of increasingly frequent floods, teaches them how to recognise lies on social networking sites, takes them to a library and shows them Charles Darwin’s book “On the Origin of Species”, which mentions the proteus, among other beings.

“I got the inspiration for the character years ago during a visit to Postojna Cave. The proteus makes the perfect hero for this story: on the one hand, it so vulnerable – it needs clean water to survive, it can’t see, but it can feel just about everything, and on the other hand, it is a veritable superhero – it lives for over a hundred years and can go without food for ten years," said Dr Gumiero. The following is his message to Slovenians: “Keep on protecting the proteus! And bring your children to Postojna Cave, so they can learn how fragile, yet rich and diverse life is.”

Proteus – A True Hero from the Slovenian Subterranean World

“We are very pleased that the proteus is becoming a global hero, drawing attention to the importance of a clean environment. We do our very best to protect the proteus, as it is a reminder of how important a clean environment is not only for its survival, but also for the survival of all of us humans and future generations. The animated film speaks to children in a witty, playful and good-humoured way, which we find especially important. Education and a respectful attitude towards nature must start with our youngest generation,” says Katja Dolenc Batagelj, Managing Director and Marketing Director of Postojna Cave.

The proteus (Proteus anguinus) is a one-of-a-kind animal species, endemic, living only in the Dinaric Karst. Scientists are fascinated by its longevity, regenerative abilities and “eternal youth” – it never “grows up; in fact, it remains in the larval stage and can reproduce even in old age. In 2016, Postojna Cave wowed the global public with the first-ever documented hatching of baby proteus in Postojna Cave. This extraordinary event was reported by all the world’s top media – from the BBC, CNN and the Guardian to National Geographic. Today, we continue doing our very best to preserve these extraordinary creatures and their habitat and one of the things that helps us do so is the Protect Proteus Project initiative.

The Brazilian project on the other side of the world is fighting to protect our environment with much the same zeal, giving children a playful and witty, yet extremely educational insight into the challenges of our time. This is the first initiative of its kind in Brazil, however, it carries a global message: today’s children live with climate change and it is part of their day-to-day lives, so they need knowledge and inspiration to become guardians of our planet. The proteus from Slovenia is thus transforming from a mysterious cave-dwelling creature into a global ambassador for nature protection and the fight against climate change.