A blurry piece of dashcam footage captured near Yellowstone National Park shows a mysterious creature bounding across the road and experts say that the curious critter could be a rarely-seen wolverine. According to a local media report, the tantalizing video (seen below) was filmed Tuesday morning as wildlife photographer Trent Sizemore was driving in the town of West Yellowstone. His otherwise tranquil trip along a snow-covered road near the iconic national park took a wondrous turn when something suddenly darted out in front of his vehicle. Although initially suspecting that the creature could have been "either a coyote or a black wolf," the wildlife photographer dismissed those possibilities after noticing something unusual about how the animal moved.

"It was loping across the road, too low to the ground to be a wolf," Sizemore recalled, "and I realized it might be a wolverine." His suspicions were strengthened when he showed the dashcam footage to his friend, wildlife biologist Cat Wood, who echoed that conclusion. "I feel like the gait, color, and size indicate that it's a wolverine," she said. Specifically, Wood noted that the animal's "loping gallop" is a distinct characteristic of the creatures that makes them rather easily identifiable, regardless of how otherwise indecipherable the footage may seem. In a testament to the rarity of a wolverine sighting near Yellowstone, experts say that their population in Wyoming may be as few as 15 with only a handful living around the national park.