Weasel-like predator filmed outrunning rabbit in deadly chase

The rabbit – a species traditionally known for being fleet-footed – appears to have at last met its match in the marten, if this video is anything to go by.

Québec residents James and Theresa MacLeod Loon filmed the weasel relative pursuing its longer-legged rabbit prey at unthinkable speeds along a roadway outside the town of Mistassini last week.

The video, shared to Facebook, has since been viewed more than 7.6 million times.

It shows a dashboard view of a snow-laden road; the scurrying marten appearing at first as a distant black shape, some metres behind the white rabbit, slowly closing the distance.

The rabbit at one point makes the mistake of trying to race up a snowbank, only to have the marten pounce on its prey, killing it.

"You see a lot of small game on the roads, but nothing like that, like a hunt," Ms Loon told CBC Canada.

"We talked to other elders, and they've never seen a marten make a kill like that."

The marten is an omnivorous species related to wolverines, minks, badgers, ferrets and weasels, known to populate forests throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

Ms Loon claims that according to local Québec lore, martens prolong chasing their prey because it makes the meat “more savoury”.

"The marten could have caught it earlier,” she said.

“But that's how the marten prefers to eat it.”