Elk NetworkPost Staredown Elk Photo Goes Viral

General | May 13, 2020

You never know what may be looking at you from the other side of the glass. Just ask Stuart McKelvie. He looked out his window in Canmore, Alberta, Canada, only to see a cow elk looking right back at him. After a long staring contest, McKelvie grabbed his phone and took a photo just after the elk looked away.

“As I got up and looked out my window, it was like a scene in a cartoon where time stops and both characters just stand completely still, looking at one another,” McKelvie told the Rocky Mountain Outlook. “Thankfully my phone was in my hand, and I was able to quickly snap this photo as the elk turned away to find the rest of her herd.”

He then shared his photo with the aptly named Facebook group View from My Window along with this comment:  “Canmore, Canada, 8 a.m. Town has become so quiet, the animals have started checking on us to make sure we’re doing okay.”

Two weeks after posting his photo, more than 103,000 people from around the world reacted to it, more than 2,100 others shared it and 7,400 people posted comments.

(Photo source: Stuart McKelvie)