Blessed redeemer! Check out this now-viral piebald moose video
'Moosey, moosey, moosey!'
Move over, David Attenborough, Newfoundland and Labrador has a new favourite narrator for nature documentaries.
This video of a rare piebald moose has captured the hearts of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and it's not just because of the ghostly white animal in the footage.
"My blessed redeemer!" gasps Roxanne Rowsell as the moose takes a bath in a pond near Black Duck Brook on the Port au Port Peninsula.
"I never, never seen the likes of this before in my life. And will never see it again."
Rowsell and her friend Nancy Andrews were driving down a road they'd frequently been down, on the hunt for a moose to photograph.
"What looked to be a rock that really wasn't there the day before ... I said, 'Just a second, Rox, I think we got to back up here,'" Andrews told CBC of how the pair came to find and capture a video of the moose.
The duo stopped and watched the massive bull moose for a while. Andrews says he didn't seem bothered by their presence.
"Then we chatted to him and eventually he decided he had enough to eat, and up he got," she said.
A 'special' animal
The two women firmly believe the moose they captured on video is the same one well known in the area, and they've been trying to spot him for five years now.
"He's pretty sporadic. He turns up in early June and then when you think he's around he's gone somewhere else," Andrews said.
"He's a bit magical like that. He's not around, it's not like you can count on going out and seeing him. You can probably go for months and months and never see him — and then bingo, there he is like he was the other morning."
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The rarity of the sightings means it's always a treat when someone does catch a glimpse.
"He's so special," Andrews said.
"He made it through another winter, and he's getting older, but he's just been around. Everyone around here is always trying to get a picture of our special moose."
"Hopefully now nothing happens to him," Rowsell said.
The video was posted Aug. 13 and, so far, has more than 157,000 views. But even more than the moose, people are eating up the commentary from the two women who were shocked to get so close to the massive animal.
"It's a good thing. It's nice for Newfoundlanders to see, and that's my comments when I see a moose up close and personal, and that's just the way it is. Very honest, and very clean," Rowsell laughed.
"Which we're thankful for," added Andrews.