Goshawk Deadly 60 Bites

On Deadly 60, I've had loads of incredible animal encounters.

Here's just one of my many favourites.

This is Deadly 60...Bites!

Next on my list is one of the amazing birds of prey

we have here in the UK.

And it hunts in the challenging environment of our woodlands.

The master of this habitat is this winged wonder, the goshawk.

Goshawks typically breed and hunt in mature woodlands.

And hunting in here is about dodging obstacles

and being able to ambush your prey.

-Because of that...

-GOSHAWK CRIES OUT

she has a very different design, and quite a loud voice, as you can hear!

I'm not sure she'll let me show you this,

but the wings - come on, sweetheart -

are shorter, and more rounded.

And she has this wonderful, fan-shaped tail.

There you go.

This works like a rudder steering her amongst the trees.

To show you how awesome she can be, in full predatory mode,

we'll have her hunt something a little bit bigger than normal. Me.

Goshawks are so super-fast,

we've had to bring all kinds of bits of kit

to try and film her in flight.

We've even got people in the trees!

Right... Now,

I've got, erm, I've got the lure,

a little bit of meat there, on my hand.

And when Ellie is loosed,

she'll try and find the path of least resistance to find me.

This woodland could be hell for a bird of prey.

It's just a tangle of beech, conifers and hazel.

All the trees are very tightly packed together.

And for a bird as big as the goshawk, really,

it's going to have to dodge and weave in and out

with incredible manoeuvrability.

I'm really quite far from her.

But, erm, their eyesight is about eight times better than ours.

So she should spot me with ease.

OK, whenever you're ready...

Ugh! Crikey!

The force of that, as she hits you!

Imagine what it must be like if you were a rabbit!

I didn't hear a sound!

It just belted me!

OK, so now I've felt what it's like to be the prey,

we have a remarkable bit of technology

which can show us what it's like to be the hunter.

This harness here - please don't take my fingers off, Ellie,

that would be such a bad day -

attaches to a tiny little mini camera, which is going to give us

a goshawk's-eye view of flying through these trees.

Come on, shall we get you kitted up?

Right, just about...there.

Now that my role as prey is over, it's time to check out

exactly how Ellie hunts, in such thick woods.

Right, let's look at our hero, or should I say heroine, in action.

Look at that! You can see the talons coming back open, spreading,

with razor-sharp ends to them.

Just imagine, if you were a bird or a rabbit,

and saw those coming at you like that,

it would be the last thing you ever saw.

I mean, really, she's gone from about 30 miles an hour

to a complete stop in the space of under a second.

The deceleration forces must be incredible, the G-forces, unreal.

And she's doing that by throwing back her wings,

spreading those flight feathers, and just stopping herself dead,

like a parachute on a drag racing car. That force goes into the prey.

All the force from the flight hits the prey,

and it'll be all over within seconds.

Oh, wow!

That was... Hang on, I'm going to watch that again.

It was all over... Even speeded down that amount,

it's all over in a fraction of a second.

Effortlessly, she's folded her wings together so she can get through

that narrow gap without losing any speed whatsoever.

But she's going through a gap not much wider than her body,

let alone with her spread wings.

I think all this technology that we've had to use to get any sense

of what the goshawk's like at hunting shows

why she has to go on the Deadly 60. I mean, she thinks, acts, sees,

in a whole different world of speed to us.

And that's why you're going on the Deadly 60.

You have no idea what that is, do you?

Amazing acceleration, speed and agility.

This dodging and weaving aerial predator

is any woodland animal's worst nightmare.

Goshawk has got to go on the Deadly 60.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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