Hantavirus is spread by breathing in mice droppings, urine or nesting materials. The only mice involved are deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). People living in areas where the virus is present may be at risk of catching it from close contact with wild mice, so cabin owners should beware as they clean and prepare their cabins for the summer season.
Black bears are found throughout the Okanagan and the rest of BC, but while black bears keep to the most inaccessible parts of our forests most of the time, during the Spring and early Summer travellers are most likely to see them in open areas.
Bears are solitary except for the mating season from mid-May to early-July. In late January or February, one to five cubs are born; they will stay with their mother until a year and half old.
Don Elzer tells a story of what the ancient landscape of the Okanagan and the Monashee may have been like as the last great ice age began to retreat. This is a speculative account however there is new scientific evidence surfacing that sheds new light on the fantastic changes that occurred here 15,000 years ago.
The Rendezvous Chronicles - Episode 1
A Mystery Unfolds in the Monashee and Okanagan:
An Ancient Inland Sea Exposes a New World
The southcentral interior of British Columbia is rich in natural history, in particular the Okanagan Valley as it links north to the interior plateau and east to the Monashee Mountain range. In this region geological history unfolds beginning with a torrent of molten lava caused by eons of volcanic activity.
and a New World
