Massive Eagle Swoops In After Hare In Ultimate Predator Vs. Prey Chase

Styles make fights in sports and in nature. What we have here is a clear predator-prey clash between an eagle and a hare, which is made all the more fascinating by the polarized tactics they deploy. It’s a fight for survival for the hare, and to borrow sports terminology, a crunch-time, gotta-have-it hunting mission for the eagle.

Who will prevail? Well I won’t spoil that just yet, but thanks to BBC Earth, we have a beautiful, cinematic look at this avian versus speedster tussle.

I feel like that big bird could eat me under the right circumstances. Good thing this hare can really scoot. As the video states, the hare has the option to either hide away until the eagle gets worn out and seeks other food, or can make a dash for it and evade fatality that way.

It takes such a precise flight path and angle of attack for the eagle to pull this off. Pretty amazing how often they connect. As dope as it would be to soar through the air on those sturdy, intimidating wings, I don’t envy this creature’s task at hand in the name of sustenance. The eagle also has to negotiate the perils of potential injury. One steep angle could prove costly and render it unable to hunt going forward, resulting in certain death. Yup, the stakes are very high indeed.

How wild is it that we appear to get cameras strapped to the hare and the eagle? Without looking into it further, I have no idea how this is achieved, or better yet how wildlife cameras are set up to get such intimate moments in the face of dangers far greater than what’s featured here. OK but not to get too off-topic, because we have to address who won out here in the end.

The hare essentially brake checks the eagle as its initial evasive maneuver, and darts uphill to get away again. Another risk the eagle takes on, which I knew nothing about before, is wind turbulence from the ground. This clever hare knew not to go downhill and make it easy on its pursuer. In the next sequence, the eagle bides its time while the hare hides away. A thrilling nosedive to the earth results in the eagle thisclose but just missing the hare, who once more retreats uphill to survive.

Damn. What a rush. Fun fact from the vid: Eagles have up to eight times sharper eyesight than humans. That must part of the inspiration for the term “eagle eye.”