Jack Russel chases terrified mountain lion up a tree in US

A Jack Russel in the US chased a terrified mountain lion up a tree before it was knocked down and caught.

But with the odds stacked against him, Jack, the plucky Jack Russel, chased a deadly mountain lion high into a tree.

Jack's owner, Chad Strenge, witnessed the astonishing scenes while he was walking Jack on farmland in South Dakota.

The pair had been hunting when Strenge heard Jack barking frantically several hundred yards away.

Thinking that his heel-biting Jack Russel - a breed known for their high energy levels - might have caught a squirrel, Strenge raced to a patch of dense woodland.

Incredibly, the 150lb mountain lion was trapped high in the branches while 17lb Jack bayed for his blood below.

"He trees cats all the time. I suppose he figured it was just a cat," the Daily Mail quoted Strenge, as saying.

"The lion very well could have lost a territory and decided to take off from the Black Hills and head this way," he said.

Strenge shot at the lion which knocked it from the tree. Jack then chased the lion over a short distance before Strenge killed it with his gun.

Jonathan Jenks, an expert on cougar migration, said hunters usually needed two or three hounds to chase a lion up a tree.

"The cougar was probably not hungry enough to attack Jack. It very well could have lost a territory and decided to take off from the Black Hills and head this way," he said.

Arden Petersen, of the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks department, said that no charges would be filed for shooting the animal.