In the classic story of the tortoise and the hare, the slower tortoise wins the race because it was “slow and steady.” Must be nice to be able to walk around and not worry about predatory birds swooping down and attacking you…
Hares have no choice but to be fast, especially when it comes to survival out in the wild. I don’t want to come out and say that the Tortoise and the Hare was a bunch of bull-sh*t, though I would like for someone to try and convince me that the rabbit in this video would be better off being slow (and steady).
Because this hare doesn’t have the luxury of having a hard shell protecting its back, it instead had to go deep into its bag of tricks and “pull itself out of a hat” to avoid being swooped down on by a large, menacing hawk. And while we’re on a roll with the magic puns, may I add that the hare successfully managed to pull off the disappearing act?
In the footage, the hare is seen sprinting at full speed while also somehow being aware of the exact location of the hawk attacking from the sky. One could assume that the hare, like a viewer of a television in the 1960’s, was putting those rabbit ears to work. Rabbits are known to have exceptional hearing, and this one was most likely letting its ears do most of the work on defense.
When it heard the air of the hawk’s wings get close enough, it timed its counter perfectly, jumping high up into the air to throw off the bird’s attack, thus buying it more time to escape. The hawk never really knew what hit it, and the hare proved that there really is a reason to believe that a rabbit’s foot can be lucky (as long as it’s used to jump out of harm’s way).
You can view the video (which shows two different hawk attacks on hares ending the exact same way) below:
The ol’ Top Gun move…
