A tourist at Kruger National Park in South Africa caught on video the incredible moment an impala made the split-second decision to jump into a car to avoid becoming dinner for two hungry cheetahs.
The animal was being chased along with its herd by the cheetahs and suddenly became the only one left behind. Just as it was cornered by the ferocious cats, the impala seized the opportunity to leap into the passenger window of a nearby Toyota filled with tourists for safety.
Samantha Pittendrigh, 20, caught the whole scene on camera.
“All of a sudden we saw the impala jump out of the bushes and then someone started screaming ‘it is in the car, it is in the car,'” Pittendrigh said. “We heard a little girl screaming in the car. The boy sitting outside the car filming looked a lot younger, so it must have been a family. People in other cars screamed ‘open the door, open the door.'”
A few moment later the car door opened and the impala fled to safety.
Pittendrigh said in the end, the cheetahs were able to catch another unlucky imapala just a dozen feet up the road.