A family photo of the four-legged variety has earned a place of honour in the BC SPCA鈥檚 latest Wildlife-in-Focus Photography contest.

The image 鈥� of seven skunk kits and their mother in a South Surrey backyard 鈥� captured by Jacek Kaim in mid-June was among 10 鈥渋ncredible鈥� entries submitted from across the province to receive an honourable mention in the contest.

The youngsters were 鈥渢umbling over each other as they followed their mother from one end of our yard to the other,鈥� Kaim writes in a submission explaining the photo.

鈥淢anaged to get one good shot with all of them looking forward (mother in the back).鈥�

The contest, in its 12th year, challenged amateur photographers in B.C. to celebrate the province鈥檚 diverse wildlife through photos, capturing them in either a backyard or natural habitat.

Nearly 1,000 entries were submitted.

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First place in the Backyard Habitats category went to Coldstream鈥檚 Thomas Haslinger for a photo of a pine chipmunk eating breakfast, followed by a Campbell River shot by D. Ross Fisher of a baby robin preparing to dine on a juicy worm. Third place went to Sandy Stirling of Nanoose Bay for a photo taken in 2014 of a tiny frog found in one of her garden鈥檚 canna lilies.

In the Wild Settings category, New Westminster鈥檚 Joshua Wolfe scored the win with a photo of bear cubs foraging near Bob Quinn (Lake), followed by Greg Peterson of Burnaby鈥檚 shot of a short-eared owl in Boundary Bay and Nanoose Bay resident Deborah Freeman鈥檚 photo of a mink on Malcolm Island.

The People鈥檚 Choice Award went to 琉璃神社鈥檚 Eileen Harris for her shot of a bumble bee clinging to grass.

First-place winners in both judged categories will be featured in the upcoming issue of the BC SPCA鈥檚 Animal Sense magazine, while the photos of all three winners in both categories as well as the top 12 People鈥檚 Choice photos will appear on BC SPCA greeting cards that are to be sold online, a news release states.

The contest raised $32,920 for the society鈥檚 Wild Animal Rehabilitation Centre (Wild ARC), to benefit care for injured and orphaned wildlife.

To view more of the submitted photos, visit

tholmes@peacearchnews.com
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