Caught on video: Baby moose stops traffic in B.C.

The moments when a mother moose and her baby stopped traffic on a Northern B.C. highway last week were caught on video by a truck driver.

Rodney Pierre was coming into Prince George along the Yellowhead Highway on May 18 when traffic came to a standstill on the busy route near a Canadian Tire and a Walmart.

"I didn't see the moose until we came to a complete stop. The cow and calf, I thought they were going to run down the road because the calf couldn't get over the barrier but the mother kept trying to force it over," he tells CTV News, adding that the calf was very young and seemed unsteady on its legs.

"It was just surprising," he adds, explaining why he decided to take out his phone and start recording.

The video Pierre shot shows the mother moose on one side of the highway's concrete divider and the calf on the other. The adult moose hops back over the barrier, briefly reuniting with the baby before jumping over once again, almost as if to show the little one how it's done.

But the calf either can’t or won't jump.

"Come on little calf, get over there!" Pierre encourages from his truck "You can do it little calf!"

One of the drivers who had pulled over can be seen getting out of his car and tries to shoo the baby moose off of the road, prompting the mother to quickly jump back over to rejoin the calf.

"I thought he was going to get attacked," Pierre says. "The mother moose are always very protective. They treat everybody as a predator because in their environment, everybody is a predator."

Eventually, the two moose amble toward the exit lane and leave the highway.

"They just went back the way they came," Pierre says.