Caught on cam: Raven flies in front of B.C. couple's car for 45 minutes

A Quadra Island, B.C., couple has just lived through a unique experience – a rare event they are sharing with the public through a 23-minute video.

Alex Lavoie and his girlfriend, Jodi Young, were working in northern British Columbia and were travelling along the Dempster Highway on Dec. 10 when they were escorted by a raven that flew in front of their vehicle for more than half an hour.

The raven is pictured. (Alex Lavoie/Jodi Young)

When the raven first swooped in front of his windshield, Lavoie says he was travelling about 80 km/h along the isolated roadway.

"When it first went in front of the Jeep and I lost view of it, I was quite nervous," he told CTV News on Wednesday.

"It was gone for a moment and that road is pretty bumpy, but after a while I started to get used to it and just kind of let him go with the flow," Lavoie said.

The highway stretches 740 kilometres from Dawson City, Y.T., to Inuvik, N.W.T. and is known as being a bucket-list journey. It certainly provided the couple with a bucket-list adventure they never would have anticipated.

"Honestly, at first I was quite nervous that it was going to fly too far forward in front of the vehicle, but after about 30 seconds I was like, 'Oh wow.' So I handed my phone to my partner, Jodi, and said, 'Hey could you start recording this?'" Lavoie said.

She would end up capturing a video that would last for 23 and a half minutes, but Lavoie estimates the entire encounter went on for more than 45 minutes.

"I think that it was definitely trying to catch the wind. A majority of the time it was basically trying not to use its wings other than to catch a draft," said Lavoie.

"I’ve had a lot of experiences with wildlife, but definitely never something like this," he said.

Towards the end of the video, Lavoie stopped the vehicle and went out to feed the raven, choosing the only thing he had on hand, which was Temptations cat treats.

Michael Lavoie is pictured with the raven. (Alex Lavoie/Jodi Young)

"I wanted to see how close it would get," he said.

"So we were feeding it cat treats and when we took off it actually came with us again. It caught up and went right back in front of the Jeep," he said.

The couple’s cat was also travelling with them, sitting inside a carrier cage but with a view towards the front windshield. Lavoie says the cat made some odd sounds when the raven was travelling in front and along side them but didn’t seem too fazed.

Encounters with ravens are often seen by some as spiritual events, something that Lavoie’s girlfriend agrees with. Jodi saw it as a sign as it was their final trip down the Dempster Highway after working up north.

"Regardless of how you see it I think it was an amazing experience. It was definitely something that I’ll remember," he said.

At the end of the 45-minute journey, Lavoie says the raven found something else to amuse itself with.

"As I was taking a corner I could see in my mirror that another raven had met up with it and they were playing on the road."