“I’ve been on the island for 40 years and I’ve never seen an elk here,” Jamil Hart-Weller told the Gulf Islands Driftwood.
“I just happened to be doing some work inside and looked out the window, and couldn’t believe my eyes,” Derek Melton told the Gulf Islands Driftwood.
Such were the reactions of residents who live on Salt Spring Island, a small island about 60 miles north of Victoria, British Columbia, who saw two young Roosevelt elk. The pair made the swim from nearby Vancouver Island, which is about a third of a mile away and where elk are much more common.
“We have lots of deer but they were more than twice the size of the deer,” said Melton.
(Photo source: Derek Melton)