Grizzly caught on camera mid-moose feast in northern Alberta

It's not every day that you happen to spot a grizzly bear enjoying a moose dinner on the side of the road, and even less often when you have a chance to capture it on live video.

But that's precisely what happened Monday to Oshawa-based band The Standstills, currently on a cross-country tour with fellow Canadians Our Lady Peace and I Mother Earth.

• Sudbury man punches black bear in face
• 'She was chewed up pretty bad': Grizzly bear attacks woman near Calgary
• Alberta spear hunter defends American who posted bear-killing video

Band members Renee Couture and Jonny Fox, along with two others, had been driving through the night from Kelowna, B.C., when they spotted something on Highway 40 near Grande Cache, Alta.

"Initially, we thought maybe a moose had been hit and was still alive," drummer Couture told CBC News. "Then we realized what it really was."

That's when they started filming, and broadcasting on Facebook Live.

WARNING: This video contains language some people may find offensive.

In the video, the band's vehicle slowly approached what at first appears to be an animal's body in the ditch.

"It's a f--ing grizzly bear eating a moose," Couture can be heard saying as the car pulls to a stop alongside the bear.

"You could see that the bear had been there for a little while," singer Fox later told CBC News. "He was just ripping chunks out of this thing like there was no tomorrow, which is probably true for the bear because he's probably going into hibernation soon so he's trying to fill up."

At this point, the band had been driving through the night, and the members were feeling a little dazed.

"I'm not even thinking I'm only feet away from this massive, wild grizzly bear," Fox said. "And then the smell that came in ... It was like a soft punch in the face. It was brutal."

That's when the bear looked up at the car, and the group decided it was time to move on. They ended their video and quickly lost signal on their cellphones.

It wasn't until a few hours later when they pulled into Grande Prairie and re-entered cellphone range that Couture and Fox realized how many people had tuned in. Within 24 hours of posting, the video had accumulated more than 300,000 views, and the numbers are still climbing.

"We were all very groggy so we didn't realize kind of what it was until after … We were like 'I think we just witnessed something that was crazy,' " Fox said of the close encounter.

"Which is amazing because being out here, being able to experience something like that is, we feel like it's once in a lifetime."

The video is just one in a growing number of seemingly accidental animal-themed posts The Standstills have made to their social media feeds while on tour. 

"We've always had a little bit of nature in the band," Fox said with a laugh. "I think maybe Mother Nature may be a fan of our music."