Feeding Wildlife

It's so comforting and peaceful to sit with a hot cup of cocoa on a frosty winter day and watch birds pick berries from bushes, or gather around a bird feeder. It's enjoyable just to watch animals go about their daily lives, and providing food is a sure way to bring them in close enough to observe. Providing a salt lick or grain will draw deer in some areas. We feed and care for our pets, and sometimes leave breadcrumbs or scraps for birds and squirrels. So, when animals don't seem to have enough food, the solution of feeding the animals is often the first solution to arrive. It has even been suggested as an alternative to hunting as I mentioned in my article entitled '"Why Hunt?"'but is it the best solution?

Wildlife left in the wild live entirely off the land they inhabit. They use this portion of land for food, water, shelter, and space. The land that they occupy is limited in the number of resources that it can provide by size and quality. The resources available in turn limit the number of animals that can live on the land. If animals cannot be supported they die. Hunting is used to take a number of animals before the hardest part of the year comes - winter, when the vast majority of the animals that will die that year perish. This saves the remaining animals the hardship of competition for resources, and prevents a lengthy starvation by those that would not survive. What happens when we rely on feeding the animals to support them, and prevent deaths?

Feeding animals will prevent many overwinter deaths. The next spring there is a larger than normal population of the animals, increasing competition by an amount commensurate with the number of animals increased. The extra animals cause a greater use of the supporting land. Heavier land use can cause a degradation of the quality of the land. Most people are familiar with the concept of overgrazing cattle. Placing too many cattle in a small space destroys the grass the cows use for food, can muddy water the cattle are using to drink, and render that land space useless for raising cattle. The same concept applies when dealing with wildlife.

Now let's consider the second winter after feeding. There is now a larger population with a greater proportion that will die over the winter without the aid of feeding. A larger amount of food is needed to support this population, not only because the population is larger, but also because the land is less capable of supporting them. This effect continues to build over time until the animals are almost solely dependent on the food that we provide them.

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