A sea lion brought traffic to a halt in Brazil when it used the zebra crossing on a busy road.

Motorists and pedestrians were stunned when the law-abiding marine beast waddled across the street. It had crawled out of the sea in a Brazilian beach resort moments earlier.

A 20-second clip posted on YouTube shows the half-tonne animal slithering on to the main road in Balneario Camboriu while bystanders look on open-mouthed.

Cars were stopped for 20 minutes as the three-metre long animal stretched its legs and explored the city.

The footage has been shared thousands of times online.

One amused viewer said: "Lol. Guess you don't see that everyday"

According to local reports, police were deployed along with fire crews to the scene to help return the sea lion back to its natural habitat.

It took more than 90 minutes to usher the creature back into the sea.

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