This is the incredible moment a mountain lion soared through the air and pounced right on a trail camera.
The video was captured by wildlife photographer and filmmaker Casey Anderson who positioned a trail camera near Emigrant in Montana, U.S.
The trail camera footage shows the mountain lion powerfully leaping from a tree toward the trail camera.
In a magnificent feat of athleticism, the big cat then gracefully flies through the air and pounces straight on the trail camera lens.
The clip was originally filmed in 2015. However, Anderson only appears to have shared the footage on social media recently.
“It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it’s super cat,” Anderson humorously writes in a caption accompanying the clip on Facebook.
“Mountain lions navigate the rugged terrain with unparalleled grace. They can jump 40 feet horizontally and over 15 feet vertically!”
Mountain lions are known to be accomplished jumpers — especially for a fairly large animal.
According to the Mountain Lion Foundation, these incredible animals can indeed bound up to 40 feet when they are running and leap 15 feet up into a tree. Their powerful limbs allow them to jump 18 feet off the ground as mountain lions often need to do this when they are ambushing prey.
Social media users were stunned and impressed by the mountain lion’s impressive athleticism in the trail camera footage. Several users commended the photographer’s “great camera placement.”
“Just glad you weren’t holding that camera,” another viewer comments.
‘Filming a Mountain Lion is Like Winning the Super Bowl’
Montana-based wildlife filmmaker and photographer Anderson has been documenting mountain lions for several years. However, the elusive animals are not easy to spot.
When Anderson discovered mountain lion tracks outside of this home in Paradise Valley, he decided to film the animals living in his backyard for the 2018 documentary The Mountain Lion and Me and the unique relationship he formed with them.
According to a report by The Verge, Anderson turned to military-grade, thermal-sensing FLIR cameras to track the mountain lion family even at night.
He mounted a camera-stabilizing platform designed for helicopters on his truck. And he spent two years filming the mountain lion and cubs in his backyard before he ever knew the documentary would reach a TV screen.
“I knew how unique of an opportunity it was,” Anderson tells The Verge.
“If you get to film a mountain lion for like five days in one year, you’re like winning the Super Bowl. And we were filming her for months on end.”