Rare white 'spirit moose' captured on video in northern Ontario

Extended: White moose cross Highway 101 A northern Ontario couple captured this footage of two white 'spirit moose' as they crossed Highway 101 near Foleyet, Ont.

A northern Ontario couple was treated to a rare sighting of not one but two white ‘spirit moose,’ and they managed to capture the magical experience on camera.

Nicole Leblanc of Timmins, Ont., tells CTVNews.ca that she and her husband were driving to their camp near Foleyet, Ont., on Saturday afternoon when the two moose crossed Highway 101.

The moose hung around for a few minutes and she captured most of the experience on her phone camera.

“My husband has been hunting for years and it’s the first time he’s ever seen albinos,” Leblanc said. “He was so excited.”

Leblanc was excited too. She’s seen moose before, but just the common brown ones.

The moose are not technically albino. Their colour is the result of a recessive gene sometimes called the Armstrong White Gene Strain, according to an article from the Ontario government.

In order to protect the rare moose, the province has banned harvesting any moose that is more than 50 per cent white-coloured in the areas near Timmins, Chapleau and Foleyet.

Leblanc and her husband aren’t the only people wowed by the sighting. More than 200,000 people have clicked on the video that Leblanc shared on Facebook on Sunday.

“People are amazed,” Leblanc said. “It’s not every day that you get to see it and I was able to tape it ... It’s a beauty to see.”