‘Like a horror movie!’ gasp David Attenborough’s Mammals viewers as show hit with complaints over ‘brutal’ scenes
SIR David Attenborough’s latest nature documentary, Mammals, has left fans shocked with its ‘brutal and horrific’ scenes.
The new BBC programme unravels how rare animals have adapted to every environment they have encountered.
The six-part Mammals series, the product of five years of filming and thorough research, begins 200 million years ago at the time of dinosaurs and includes humans in the narrative.
During the first episode, viewers watched as a coyote sourced food by devouring an adorable bunny.
Sir David informed viewers, “They are skilful hunters,” as the mammal observed a patch of greenery in Chicago during the nighttime.
The coyotes have switched to being nocturnal to avoid human beings, and this plan has been successful; over 4000 coyotes are now in the city.
The mammals can catch their food often without interruption, which the footage clearly shows.
In the shocking moment caught on camera, a coyote ripped the bunny apart and chewed it to pieces, with the head detaching from the body.
The episode aired on Easter Sunday, a day often associated with the cute, fluffy animal.
As the scenes unfolded, Sir David explained: “Before dawn arrives, these coyotes retreat into the shadows. It’s the ingenuity and adaptability of these mammals that has enabled them to become active in conditions that we avoid.”
The synopsis for the first episode reads: “David Attenborough narrates a look into the lives of mammals, exploring how they have adapted to their changing surroundings and have found ways to create homes in the wild.
“The first episode focuses on animals that thrive in the dark, from leopards that use night vision to hunt their prey to bats using echolocation to navigate the night skies.”
Just minutes into the episode, viewers watched as a leopard stalked its prey and jumped through trees in order to hunt baboons.
After seeing the bunny become the victim of the food chain, viewers took to X(Twitter) and reacted to the savage scene.
One user wrote: “The bunny got eaten on Easter Sunday! Come on, David, I’m still eating my tea.”
Another viewer noted the unfortunate timing of the bunny’s end of life being aired on Easter Sunday: “Good on the BBC for ending Easter Sunday with a coyote eating a bunny head.”
A third fan simply said: “Oh, no, not the bunnies!”
A fourth user sarcastically remarked, ‘Happy Easter, as another typed, “Not the bunnies getting eaten on Easter Sunday. Fabulous viewing as always, though.”
Others branded the moment “brutal” and “horrific.”
Most recently, the 97-year-old has worked on Secret World of Sound for Sky and NOW.
The Director of Documentaries andago, Factual, Poppy Dixon, spoke to the Metro about the special event and said: “Not a lot of people know that many natural history programmes don’t actually record sound on location. It’s all done in post.”
Mammals airs every Sunday on BBC One at 7pm. The first episode is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.