I wonder how such behaviour is programmed into animals. I have seen on TV nature documentaries lions jumping on back of wildebeest, with one paw catching a leg low down to trip the prey, while other paw turned head to opposite side, so that when the pray animal fell, it would break its neck.
So I was fascinated to have a kitten hiding in low bushes pounce on my shin with same placement of paws, which would have made me fall if I hadn't been so much larger and heavier. Instead the kitten did a somersault.