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