An Ontario man could not believe his eyes nor his ears when he stumbled upon a pair of lynx engaged in an epic and truly strange showdown. Ed Trist captured the bizarre encounter as it unfolded in front of him while driving down a remote logging road. According to him, spotting a lynx in the area is not a particularly rare event, but such sightings usually consist of a fleeting glimpse and the elusive creatures are always alone.

Realizing that this particular scene was rather out of the ordinary, he stopped about 30 feet away and began filming the wildcats. In the amazing and somewhat mesmerizing footage, the lynx can be seen staring each other down and exchanging shrieks that are alternatively haunting and hilarious. Marveling at the remarkable moment he’s been fortunate enough to witness, Trist muses “who runs into this?”

It would seem that the answer to that question is ‘not too many people’ as a wildlife expert told the CBC that “typically it’s not witnessed” in nature since the lynx facing off would likely do so in the boreal forests of the area away from human eyes. He theorized that Trist happened upon a male and a female lynx in the midst of mating season, but the battle could have also been caused by two of the animals running into each other and protecting their respective territory from intruders.