Rabbit, run! Wolverine and raven tag team on a wild chase

It's got the makings of an animated feature film — an odd-couple alliance between an energetic wolverine and a clever raven, as they fight for survival in Canada's North.

Their prize? A hapless hare.

Jason Benjamin and his co-workers recently witnessed the unlikely triple-species showdown on a remote stretch of the Alaska Highway near Beaver Creek, Yukon.

"I've seen a lot of things, but never seen anything like this," Benjamin said.

He managed to catch most of the wild chase on video and it's already been viewed thousands of times on social media.

Benjamin says he and his co-workers had just finished a day of road work and were driving along when they spotted some kind of commotion up ahead.

"We got closer and there was wolverine, it was chasing a rabbit, and there was a raven that looked like he was helping him [the wolverine]," he recalled.

Benjamin — a passenger in the vehicle — whipped out his phone and started recording. 

The minute-long video shows the wolverine booking it straight down the highway after the hare. Occasionally, the raven swoops into view and appears to run interference, slowing the varmint down.

"He wants to have a meal too, he's helping him out," one of the men says on video.

The video ends with the hare still alive, but the raven and wolverine appear to have him cornered. Benjamin said he stopped recording because a transport truck was waiting behind them on the road.

You can probably guess the hare's fate, though.

"After I stopped shooting it, the rabbit went running past us. And that raven went after him and I turned around and looked — and that raven went down and he actually got him," Benjamin said.

"He just pretty much pounced on it. I think the rabbit was pretty tired, because he was running for a while there."  

Benjamin later posted his video online and soon his phone was "going off like crazy" as people reacted and shared it.

"I had to put the volume right down because I had to get up early in the morning," he said. 

'Extraordinary,' biologist says

Yukon government biologist Tom Jung watched the video, and said it was "phenomenal to see."

He says wolverines are hard to spot, and he's only ever seen them scavenging — not hunting. He's impressed by how much effort this one put into the chase.

"Seeing one is one thing, but then seeing one chasing another animal trying to catch it as their prey is even more extraordinary," Jung said.

He's less surprised by the raven's behaviour. He says they're known to follow carnivores around, looking to score a meal.

"They're very smart animals, ravens, and I think if they see an opportunity, they take one."

According to Jung, a hare could probably outrun a wolverine but this unlucky bunny was likely overwhelmed.

"It was confusion. Having two different predators, one from the sky and one from the ground, not to mention people in a car watching," Jung said.

Benjamin is pretty happy he was watching. He said he and his co-workers were "in awe."  

"We were pretty lucky to catch that. And it's just like a once-in-a-lifetime thing to see," he said.

"You just never know what you're going to see. Just keep your eyes open and, you know, keep your camera ready and you just never know."