I'm following a story of an extremely
shy animal. I've been studying hares on the
Yorkshire Wolds here for years and I saw something
near my studio that I'd never seen before.
I was just walking along this path in the wood and just here i saw a female
hare lollipping away, and I looked down to see where she'd
come from and there were two little tiny baby leverets in here.
There were some of the youngest leverets that had ever seen.
Only a day or so old and the two little leverets were just
down there in a form, which is a nest the female hares makes. So I wasted no time and set up cameras
straight away, to reveal this secret world of the hare.
[Music] Female hares leave their young during
the day to go foraging and only briefly return at night to feed
them. As dusk falls the leverets creep out of
the underground, the mother arrives at the front gate
and then scampers up towards the woodland. And my hidden cameras capture every
moment, the female visits briefly only once a
day to avoid detection from predators. [Music]
She gives them a quick clean and tries covering them up as best she
can. Before leaving them for the night, but the next day I'm worried to see
predators sniffing around nearby. [Music]
A stoat, an owl or a badger could easily take a leveret. I'm keeping a close eye on them and then
one night I notice one of the leverets is missing.
[Music] Usually the female stays only long
enough to feed the babies. [Music]
This night she searches for nearly an hour,
[Music] but there's no sign it's gone. Now only one remains I've just come in to check the cameras
and I've just spotted the most remarkable thing.
The little leverets down here at the base of this tree, just crouching there.
Still just a few meters away from where it was first born.
Absolute stunning little thing, I'm amazed how much it's grown in a week as
well. And this is its defence against
predators, just laying here all day still quiet not moving.
And then at night it will come out into the open for the mother to find it to
feed it, just once a day, remarkable! Over the next few weeks, I
continue filming the female and her lone baby.
It's brave enough now to leave the woodland,
but it can be dangerous out here. [Applause]
Having all these cameras means we can watch the dramas unfold as they happen,
and one day we see the leveret being chased by a stoat.
They twist and tumble and the little leveret manages to fight free,
just as the mother arrives to chase the stoat off.
But there are more dangers after dark. [Music] The tawny owl also spies the young
leveret roaming around and makes a grab for it, before mum comes
to the rescue again. The confident little leveret now explores
the whole garden and meets mum for a feed in my car park
at night. So I've just got the leveret arrived here
and the leveret always comes out first, before the female arrives.
So this is so great I love it's uh using the cars as shelter and it's
hiding under the car just next to the wheel at the moment. So the females just come in, which is
actually now greeting the leveret and starting to feed it right in front
of me. This is just incredible. [Music]
This is absolutely incredible I've waited for years to see this.
The little leveret just rolled on its back now and the female hair is grooming
it and cleaning it. [Music]
Finally after years of trying I've got these intimate shots of the hare
feeding their leveret right out in the open,
absolutely magic! [Music]
In around six months this leveret will be fully grown
and ready to start its own family, hopefully in my backyard. Thank you for watching and I hope you
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