By 'helping' wild animals, you could end their freedom or even their lives – here's why you should keep your distance
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星期五, 六月 30, 2023
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Animals are on the move: Turtles are nesting, baby birds are testing their wings, snakes are foraging and young mammals are emerging.
Key Points:
- Animals are on the move: Turtles are nesting, baby birds are testing their wings, snakes are foraging and young mammals are emerging.
- In central Pennsylvania, where I live, last year’s hatchling painted turtles have overwintered in their nests and emerged looking like tiny helpless snacks for raccoons and ravens.
- I’ve already rescued a baby killdeer – a shorebird that nests in parking lots – that ran off the road and got stuck in a grate.
- Their exposed nest site may have been a bad parental decision, or perhaps the chicks’ begging called too much attention.
Reasons for caution
- Moving animals means they can’t contribute their offspring and genes to the local population through breeding.
- For species like these, mature females are critical to keeping population sizes high.
- Moving wildlife also may introduce new genes elsewhere, leading to genetic shifts over time that didn’t evolve through natural selection.
- At a minimum, moving animals can disorient them and make it hard for them to settle, find food and water or avoid predators.
It’s usually best to keep your distance
- It makes them move away or forage and behave differently, and it can harm their body condition by triggering stress responses that ultimately reduce their fertility.
- It’s especially common for people to see baby animals or birds, seemingly alone, and feel compelled to help.
- In fact, the parents may have secured their young and be actively caring for them, or the young animals may already be independent.
- Whatever the reason, natural selection likely means these individuals and their gene complexes will not continue forward – and that benefits the species overall.
Put the animal’s needs before your own
- I believe it’s very important to foster human connections to nature and facilitate these connections for people who have little exposure to the outdoors.
- For example, I don’t touch animals that are rare unless it’s part of my research or covered by permits.
- If I handle an aquatic animal, I make sure my hands are wet and free of chemicals.
- Sometimes an unhealthy animal needs to be left alone to avoid spreading infection.
When and how to help
- Helping an animal cross a busy road is OK if you move it in the direction in which it is already headed.
- Ensuring the survival of a single adult female box turtle can be very important to the success of a local population.
- Many state agencies have a website or atlas for major wildlife groups that will help you learn which species are widespread or more rare.
- Look underneath, and then place it back as it was so that it continues to be a home for them.