An American hunter named Aidan filmed the crazy moment a hound dog grabbed a mountain lion's tail and swung, suspended in the air, from a tree.

Aidan was out in Driggs, Ihado, with a friend of his, who is also a hunter, and their dogs when they found a tomcat track. They decided to let their pets go on a race.

"We heard them about 10-15 minutes later. We saw the cat jump out of the first tree and take off. Then, trying to race up to the second tree, we saw something once in a lifetime happen right in front of us! We saw the dog hanging off the tail while the lion was climbing the tree".

Aidan hurried and pulled out his phone to record the video.

"I couldn’t believe my eyes as we all watched this dog latch onto the cat's tail hanging there. It felt like forever he was hanging there. He had finally let go of the cat and made a safe landing in the deep snow".

After filming the video, the mountain lion was shot and killed. "We will get it mounted", Aidan explains.

When asked whether it was cruel to let the dog hang from the mountain lion's tail, Aidan said: "It was out of our control".

Mountain lion hunting is legal in the US state of Idaho and generally runs from November 1 to March 31, however, animal activists are calling on authorities to stop this practice.

"Mountain lions used to be found throughout the United States, but due to bounty hunts in the early 1900's and threats such as persecution, trophy hunting, poaching, retaliation in response to livestock depredation, kitten orphaning, poisoning and habitat loss and fragmentation, mountain lions are now only found in 15 western states, and the genetically isolated Florida panther remains in the East", the organisation says.

The foundation is urging US commissioners to draft a new mountain lion management plan based on up-to-date science and current mountain lion data for the state of Idaho, set sustainable hunting quotas, and ban the use of electronic calls for mountain lion hunting.

Aidan said: "During the season I try to get out a few days a week. We don’t always kill animals, especially a female".

We found a decent Tom cat track and let the dogs go on a race. We heard them tree about 10-15 minutes later. They ran and treed hard. While walking up to the bayed up cat we seen the cat jump out of the first tree and take off. Than trying to race up to the second tree we are seeing something once in a lifetime happen right in front of us! It was the hound dog going up the tree right behind the mountain lion. So I hurried and pulled out my phone and started to record!! I couldn’t believe my eyes as we all watched this dog latched onto the cats tail hanging there! It felt like forever he was hanging there. He had finally let go of the cat and made a safe landing into the deep snow. We finally had a good and safe shot to harvest the animal. My brother got him perfect for it to only last seconds!