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Watch This Athletic Bobcat Attempt An Olympic-Level Leap Over Water

If you’re missing live sports during the coronavirus pandemic, new footage of an awesome athletic stunt may scratch that itch. It’s not a gymnast landing an aerial flip, but it’s just as impressive.

Ryan Olivier was fishing on a boat at Pecan Island in Louisiana when he managed to capture an amazing video of a brave bobcat attempting to make a large leap over the water. Louisiana actually boasts a population of more than 60,000 bobcats — though I’m guessing not all of them are as fearless as this one.

Bobcats are typically nocturnal, so it’s rare to see these wild cats in the light of day, making this stunning video even more impressive.

Check out the amazing footage in the clip posted to YouTube by Olivier:




Wow! You can almost see a look of determination on his little feline face before he makes the leap.

People were pretty impressed with this gymnast-like bobcat, and the video now has more than 300,000 views — along with plenty of comments from awestruck viewers.

“Not even a running start,” observed M VGA in the comments. “This was amazing.”

As it turns out, these types of remarkable leaps are not all that uncommon for bobcats.

“The bobcat is trying to avoid getting wet, and given what agile and athletic animals they are, jumping across the bridge is not too difficult,” Laurel Serieys, a wildlife biologist at University of Capetown and project coordinator at Urban Caracal Project, told Bored Panda. “We’ve seen bobcats hunting near water for waterfowl, so perhaps it was hunting nearby and trying to get from one side of the water to the other.”

Serieys added that bobcats can easily jump several meters.

Who knew? We’ll have to look out for this little guy at the rescheduled Olympics in Tokyo come 2021!