THE TALE OF THE HARE AND THE SUN

documentary
Nature | Wildlife
THE TALE OF THE HARE AND THE SUN
W
hen night had not yet come and the earth lay parched in
the shimmering heat, a hare swallowed the sun and out
of its overwhelming power gave birth to the white moon and
the bright stars…
And ever since – says a Native American legend – the hare has
close bonds with the sun. The legend also tells that the hare can
disappear in the rays of the sun when it is hunted and the rays
then disgorge thousands of hares.
length
50 minutes
director
waltraud paschinger
franz hafner
year
2003
format
betadigital 16:9
version
english and german
completed
AUSTRIA’S TOP FILM AND TV PRODUCERS OF WILDLIFE MOVIES
documentary
Nature | Wildlife
THE TALE OF THE HARE AND THE SUN
T
oday’s scientists may have found a link between the hare and the sun. Every ten years or
so, when the sun spots enter their phase of maximum activity, the population of snowshoe
hares in Kluane in the south-western Yukon territory explodes; it grows up to 200-fold within six or seven years and then suddenly collapses. The hares become barren and die of stress
and epidemic diseases. They take the lynxes with them which had multiplied by feeding on the
hares and which starve with the collapse of the hare population.
Life appears to retreat from the Kluane territory. The hare population declines to a minimum
within two years, only to balloon again when the sun spots become active. It really looks as if
the ancient legend was right: the hares are disgorged by the sun's rays. This is the main story
of the documentary.
The documentary tells of the life of hares, their enormous fertility, their interaction with predators and their spread over all continents, from the desert to the Arctic ice. It narrates the
dramatic stories of a female brown hare in Europe, as it raises its young, protects them against
the attack of a fox and escapes driving shooters; it tells of the gigantic rabbit colonies in
Australia and of the attempt to exterminate them by organic pathogenic organisms. It also
tells of the endangered imperial eagle in Spain which survives by feeding on the rabbit population, of the Mediterranean genet which eats young hares and of mongooses which have
specialised in hunting rabbits.
Whether in the virgin Canadian forests, in the scrubs of Spain or the fields of Central Europe,
rabbits and hares are a key part of the food chain, thanks to their numerous progeny, and
quite often the key to survival within the scope of a complex predator/prey situation.
For further information please contact
HEINRICH MAYER
Interspot Film-Ges.m.b.H
A-1230 Vienna
Walter-Jurmann-Gasse 4
phone: + 43 1 | 80 120-420
fax: + 43 1 | 80 120-222
e-mail: mayer@interspot.at
www.interspot.at
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