Fish and wildlife officers are encouraging people to do their part to help reduce dangerous situations for both humans and animals.
We know they're cute and they might seem hungry, but feeding wild animals just isn't a good idea, and here's why.
In nature, food sources tend to be spread over a large area, reducing the number of animals in any one spot.
Concentrating many animals in one area around a single food source is a perfect way to spread diseases that might not otherwise be problematic.
Also, attracting animals to gather in large numbers into one space or area, such as acreages and towns, can cause damage to natural habitat and human spaces.
Furthermore, it can result in population imbalances and prevent young animals from learning to forage effectively.
Feeding wild animals also makes them lose their natural wariness of people.
Feeding can make large, potentially dangerous animals become too comfortable in residential or recreational areas.
Once animals learn there is an easy source for food, including salt blocks, they can become a nuisance -- or even worse, a safety risk.
You may be thinking about the deer, but moose or bears could easily show up for the food you have laid out.
Bears, cougars, coyotes and wolves are carnivores, which means they eat meat. The fact that they need to eat to stay alive means they are very good at finding the easiest way to get a meal.
And if the easiest way is in your yard or on your acreage, then that is where they will show up.
Providing predators with easy access to a food source has many consequences: it puts the deer and smaller animals, including your pets and other farm animals at a greater risk.
It also puts the humans in the area at a greater risk of an unwelcome encounter. And what’s more, it puts the predators at risk. For instance, when a bear is food-conditioned, they are attracted to places where there are people, and they can become aggressive if they do not get a food reward.
This is a serious public safety concern, and the end result may be that they are trapped and moved, or that they have to be put down to prevent them from hurting someone.
Please, for their sake and your fellow residents’, don’t feed the wildlife.
To report dangerous wildlife emergencies, please phone the 24-hour Report A Poacher line at 1-800-642-3800.
- submitted by Sundre Fish and Wildlife office
