Rare sight: Mountain lion hovering over its kill caught on camera in California

(Dept. of the Interior)

A mountain lion was caught on camera Thursday straddling a deer it had just killed on a highway in the mountains of Santa Monica, California.

The U.S. Department of Interior tweeted the picture of the deadly encounter which was taken on a remote part of the Mulholland Highway.

Officials believe this is the first mountain lion sighting on a park roadway although wildlife biologists have seen more than 400 of the animals in the area.

Aside from mountain lions and similar predator animals such as bobcats and coyotes, almost 400 species of birds and 35 species of reptiles and amphibians can be found in the California National Recreation Area.