KAKABEKA FALLS, Ont. — Lesley Johnson feels she was lucky to be in the right place at the right time to witness something few people ever get to see – a wolf pursuing a deer.
Last Saturday morning, the Kakabeka resident grabbed her Nikon with the intention of getting shots of mist floating above the Kam River at Stanley.
Johnson was disappointed to find there was no mist, but stopped to photograph some fly fishermen on the river.
As she pointed the zoom lens at an angler who had just caught a fish, "I heard a huge splash," she said.
"That's when I saw the deer, so I started shooting pictures of it. Then there was a second splash. I zoomed in, and there was a wolf chasing the deer."
From her vantage point on a bridge, Johnson was able to get numerous photos of both animals during the pursuit in the water.
She said the buck made it to shallow water and the wolf soon abandoned the chase.
"I don't know if it was because he saw the fishermen or he saw me, but he gave up and turned away from the deer, then cut across the river and got up on the shore."
At that point, Johnson said, the deer was already a good distance away.
She calls the experience the thrill of a lifetime.
"I'm still so excited about it. I belong to a couple of photography groups on Facebook and I always see these amazing shots. I think 'somebody must sit there for days,' so for me to catch that was beyond phenomenal for me."
Johnson said some people have questioned whether the wolf was actually a coyote or a hybrid, but her daughter – who's a trapper – believes it was a wolf.
