In a video posted by wildlife platform Latest Sightings last fortnight, observers on a boat can be heard cheering for the antelope as it leaps and swims at  a desperate pace to stay ahead of a fast-closing crocodile out to hunt it down in Botswana’s Chobe River.

The crocodile gets momentarily distracted by the boat before it resumes the chase. The hair-raising suspense builds up as the crocodile catches up and pounces on the red lechwe antelope.

When all seemed lost the antelope bounces back as the water turns shallow and the crocodile gets kicked away with his hind legs.

The distraction seems to have made the difference between life and death for the antelope.