The unusual video captured a wild leopard cat diligently watching a chicken on a man’s farm before strangling it and taking it away.

Surveillance camera footage from the city of Changshu, located in China’s coastal province of Jiangsu, showed the wild feline carefully observing its prey on 7th March.

But just moments later it can be seen executing a surprise attack on the bird by pouncing with lightning speed and seizing it by its neck.

It then proceeded to choke the chicken before taking it away to its den.

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Chinese media revealed that a total of seven chickens taken away from the farm in the course of the night.

Having suspected a theft, the owner of the farm stunned when he later checked out the surveillance cameras and spotted the leopard cat.

The clip triggered social media users on China’s version of TikTok, Douyin, to leave a wave of comments after seeing it. It has reached more than 45,000 likes and over 11,000 shares.

Douyin user ‘Dad’s kitchen’ said: “This is a leopard cat. It’s called a mountain lizard in the north. It can kill a whole brood of chickens.”

Then user ‘Bohemian Soul’ commented: “This is called a leopard cat, a national second-level protected animal.”

And ‘Grab a bun’ added: “So fast!”

Leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) are small wild cats native to continental South, Southeast, and East Asia.

The species has listed as of Least Concern on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species as of 2002. As it is widely distributed.

However, populations are threatened by habitat loss and hunting in parts of the species’ range.