If you would like to post, you'll need to register. Note that if you have a BCG store account, you'll need a new, separate account here (we keep the two sites separate for security purposes).
I offered my birdseed to a woman who was feeding bread to the local ducks (causes a permanent wing disability) and she ignored the birdseed. Her ego got in the way of the ducks' health.... I mentioned to a woman that Cheetos were probably not a very healthy thing to feed a pelican, and she took great offense. She did stop feeding the bird junk food, though.
That's true down here in Florida, for the alligators. I'm fairly sure they prefer their canines off of a leash.
There are many stories of people dying from stupid acts with Bison, Moose, Bears and other "cuddly" animals in Yellowstone. I always wonder what they might have been thinking...
A couple of years ago some idiots picked up a bison calf because they thought it was 'cold'. The put it in their car and took it to the ranger's station. It had to be destroyed because mom wouldn't take it back. My only regret is that dad didn't stomp them. I hate stupidity.
It’s my understanding that using calls, particularly with owls, can be very dangerous for the birds. Owls are very territorial, and it may think that there’s another owl that it needs to ward off. This takes its focus away from hunting, feeding young, or tending to a nest. Also, larger raptors can prey on the smaller owl. So giving away its location can be potentially fatal. In my experience, people who use bird calls from their cell phone are just ignorant to these facts. I don’t think they’re trying to harm the animal, and they probably do care if they understood the consequences. Perhaps in that situation, kindly informing them of these consequences could make a difference. But as with my original scenarios, it’s hard to tell how people will react, and you need to judge each situation individually.
I know nowt about the USA when it comes 'confrontation' but what you say makes sense, in that it defuses the 121 confrontation(?) and makes it a firm but casual conversation that one might hope the offending party will take notice of???
If you're referring to me, I agree: However, as someone replied above, using artificial bird calls can be harmful for some birds, so should be avoided.
It’s true that there is a spectrum. I like to think of it this way: I don’t like crowds so when people get near me, I move away. But I wouldn’t say the crowd is harassing. This is similar to your birds example. On the other hand, if I person came up to me and touched me intentionally (unwanted touching), I would consider that harassment. If someone came over and started yelling at me, waving their arms and got in my space, that is harassment. If someone came too close to my home, that is a problem. And if someone picked me up and dangled me around, that’s assault. All of those things happened in my examples. So my distinction is that if a person did it to me and I felt harrassed, then you shouldn’t do it to an animal.
There are extremists on both sides. For some people, if the behavior of the wildlife changes in any way because of your presence, you're harassing them - even if they just turn their head to look your way. So, to them, you would have been harassing the birds. On the other end of the spectrum you have the people trying to stick their kid on a bison for a selfie.
I was having a similar conversation in the field last week: there's a saltwater marsh here in Vancouver where we have short eared owls and on a nice day you could have 20/30 photographers there. I don't like crowds so try and limit experiences like this, especially if they cause the animal stress: However, in this case, the owls have a huge expense of wetland to fly about in, much of which is well out of view, so its not like the crowd is cornering the animal, or limiting its choices.
Exactly. Some would say the crowd is "harassing" the owl - and technically where the crowd is standing is now an area it has no access to and is likely avoiding. However, there's also value in having people enjoy wildlife - it helps conservation efforts. So, at the end of the day, what amounts to an incredibly minor inconvenience for the animal is a fair tradeoff IMO.
That would be a very philosophical assault...a warning shot between the ideas.
