Not all cats hate water, evidently, as illustrated by a lynx Tony Moyles captured on video that he thinks swam 550 to 650 metres across Gander Lake on Saturday.

The big cat wasted no time making itself scarce when it reached land, but definitely looked tired, Moyles told CBC Newfoundland Morning.

"I more or less just went by it just to see if it was going to make it," Moyles said.

"It seemed healthy enough, and it was a lynx swimming quite fine. I was just amazed by it, seeing how good it was swimming."

At first, the adult wildcat swam close to the boat he was on with a group, Moyles said, and then kept its distance for the rest of the journey. He didn't want to cause any more distress to the animal, so his group just sat and watched after realizing the lynx would likely make it to land.

Moyles is an outdoors and wilderness guide for Caribou Pond Outfitters, so he has plenty of wilderness experience in the area, but said he hasn't seen anything like this before.

"The closest thing I've seen to that is probably a squirrel," he laughed.

It appears to be a unique sight for many others as well; the video he posted on his Facebook page had 30,000 views as of Tuesday morning.