Large herds of elk travelling in the mountains in Penticton and the Naramata area have long been talked about but rarely caught on camera until now.
Steve Zed, a South Okanagan wildlife hobby photographer, was on Campbell Mountain on Nov. 8 when he focused his lens on a herd of around 70 elk.
“I have seen them around there before but usually in the dead of winter,” Zed told the Western News.
Zed photographed the herd resting on the snow and some have birds sitting on their backs in other pictures.
There are two kinds of elk in B.C. The Rocky Mountain elk and the Roosevelt almost became extinct in B.C. due to extensive hunting in the early 1900s.
Opponents of the Spiller Road development proposal by Canadian Horizons argued that area of Campbell Mountain was an important corridor for elk.
That developer withdrew its application to the city but is allowed to build within the Official Community Plan limits of country homes and mobile home park.