A park ranger in South Texas was making a routine circuit of a nature trail earlier this week when he stumbled upon something magical: a trio of bobcats.

Ranger Abran Desiga came across the three wildcats while walking along Wader’s Trail, a caliche path near a water feature called Avocet Pond at Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco, in the Rio Grande Valley. As the bobcats made their way across the nature trail, which was bathed in sunlight dappled by the shadows cast by the low, thorny scrub lining the margins, Desiga quickly began to record on his cellphone. Park officials later posted the footage on Facebook.

The cats took notice of the ranger, making it midway across the path before calmly turning about face and returning back in the direction from which they had come. But before they disappeared back into the brush, the largest of the three paused to give Desiga a glance and a curious flick of its black-tipped, bobbed tail. The bobcat looked back one more time, then shook its ears as it sauntered off.

Estero Llano Grande is one of four state parks in the Valley that’s maintained by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. It is centrally located in what is known as the Mid-Valley, near where the city of Weslaco meets Mercedes. It was formed in 2000 by cobbling together a few different parcels of land, including what was once a trailer park, as well as a parcel of wildland maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to a history posted on the park’s website. The 230-acre park was once part of a 1790 land grant from King Charles IV of Spain to the chief justice of Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

One of the park’s most defining features is its namesake, Llano Grande Lake, a naturally-occurring waterway that’s part of the Arroyo Colorado watershed. Today, Estero Llano Grande State Park is home to a variety of native Texas species – many of which have been captured by the eagle-eyed Ranger Desiga. Along with bobcats, Desiga has filmed Texas indigo snakes, brown bats, nesting hummingbirds, American alligators, several species of owl, migrating kettles of hawks, and scores of butterflies and other insects. He’s also captured some Valley specialities – species that, in the United States, can only be found in Texas’ southernmost counties – including green jays and black striped snakes.

Watch the video of the bobcats crossing here.

This article originally published at Trio of bobcats surprise park ranger in South Texas.