Forget the golden retriever, “Air Bunny” is the new top animal athlete on the planet.
Whether it’s the tortoise and hare fable or the fact that I see super fat ones lounging in my parent’s backyard when I visit, I often forget just how impressive a rabbit can be when push comes to shove.
Sure, they’re not fighters and can’t mount much of a defense if a predator actually gets a hold of them, but it’s the getting a hold of them part that’s much easier said than done and nothing quite exemplifies this quite like a video shot by the BBC a few years back which shows a pack of hungry wolves targeting snowshoe hares to try and feed their young.
If you’re like me, the thought of wolves chasing rabbits sounds almost comical. Surely the hyper efficient, pack hunting canines would trounce any and all fluffy bounding bunnies, even if they had to chase them down, but that wasn’t the case, at least for one extraordinarily athletic rabbit.
From the second the wolves start their chase this hare is two steps ahead and displays a level of agility and quickness that I can only compare to Tyreek Hill playing against the Chargers, or Broncos, or Commanders, or any of the other teams he’s absolutely torched this year while racking up just under 1,800 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Take a look for yourself, it’s really a master class in juke moves and explosivity as the hare hits a top speed of 60 km/h (around 37 mph in American) to avoid the snapping fangs of the wolves.
Clearly, this hare did not want to be dinner that night and showed just how effective the will to survive can be in prey animals.
Admittedly, not all rabbits have this ability though. This clip was taken from a longer video which shows a different hare being chased by some of the same wolves, and that hare had a much different ending…
This second rabbit was a bit chunkier than the first and that extra weight did it no favors while trying to escape. Although it tried a few of the same moves as its friend, it was eventually caught and ripped apart to feed the pack.
As the saying goes, you don’t have to be faster than a wolf, just faster than the other rabbit running from it…
