Wildlife biologists strongly urge people to leave young wildlife in the wild alone because the mother is usually somewhere nearby, however this may be a worthy exception.

A driver in west-central Idaho came across an elk calf that, at first, was walking in the middle of a highway. When he slowed down and backed up to shoo it off the road, it then plopped down in the opposite lane.

“When I first saw the elk calf it caught me off guard because it blends into the background. My first reaction was to back up and see what it was,” Timothy, the driver, told Newsflare. “I figured that I had spooked it into playing dead. Having seen this happen hundreds of times, I knew it wasn’t going to get back up until its mom came back.”

So Timothy got out, approached the young animal and started to move it when it jumped up and ran off.

(Video source: Newsflare)