North Dakota farmer goes viral on TikTok with videos of helping newborn fawns cross the road

WILLOW CITY, N.D. - A North Dakota farmer has gone viral on TikTok.

Millions of people have watched the videos Robert Albright posted, helping two newborn fawns across a highway. He is gaining new followers every day. Albright is putting his newfound fame to good use.

Robert Albright knew this was a sight worth recording. He came upon these baby fawns in the ditch, about a mile from his Willow City farm.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “They could hardly walk.”

He figures these babies were only about four hours old. He could see their mom, but she wasn’t coming back for the babies.

“You can hear it in my voice ‘you’re just tiny.’ Their legs sounded like wooded dowels clacking on the highway,” he said.

They weren’t going to make it across on their own. Their feet really didn’t like the pavement,” he said.

Albright gave them a little help, careful to move them quickly.

“I was in a hurry. I wanted to move them and get out of their world,” Albright recalled.

Albright took videos of the babies to share with his family. He first posted them to Facebook, and later decided to share with his TikTok followers as well. That’s when these babies went viral.

“I went to bed with 200 followers or something and woke up with 1,900 and thought, ‘What in the world?’ And then now I’m at 12,000 or something and three million likes,” Albright said with disbelief.

It wasn’t his first TikTok video. Albright has been posting here since last fall.

“It’s my favorite app now,” he said.

He gives his followers a look at what it’s like to farm in north central North Dakota.

“I don’t think that the country can even envision what it’s like here off Highway 2,” the Willow City farmer said.

He also wants to show the damage the drought has already caused and educate his new followers on the importance of agriculture, as well as the beauty that can be found in the outdoors of North Dakota.

If you’re on TikTok, you can find Albright by searching for his username, @flexicoil.

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department reminds people not to touch baby wild animals. Young wildlife are often left secluded by their moms to protect them from predators.

However, they say a baby animal should be picked up if it is in an unnatural situation, such as those baby deer on the highway.