The drama unfolded on the Giant Saguaro Cactus in Arizona's Sonoran Desert. It is an enormous plant with two-inch spikes and is thought to be up to 300-years-old.Photographer Curt Fonger, 69, captured what happened on film.
He said: 'A friend called me at 7am saying one of his workers had seen a bobcat being chased by a mountain lion.
'It ran across the road in front of his car and climbed up a large saguaro cactus at the roadside, with the lion hot on its tail.'The lion didn't pursue the bobcat up the cactus but circled the base.
'It looked up at the bobcat, growled several times, then turned around and trotted back up from where it had come.'The mountain lion probably had cubs, the bobcat had intruded on its territory and she gave chase to warn the bobcat not to come close to her young family.
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