COUNTY NEWS RELEASE

Feeding wildlife is very different than allowing wildlife to forage for seasonal, natural foods, and is almost always detrimental to the animals, the environment, and human safety.

Dangers of feeding wildlife

Health problems for animals

• Malnutrition and illness: Human foods often lack the necessary nutrients for a wild animal’s health and can lead to deficiencies. Feeding the wrong food, like bread to ducks, can cause bone deformities like “angel wing,” while feeding corn to elk can disrupt their digestive systems and be fatal.
• Altered digestion: Many animals’ digestive tracts change seasonally to adapt to different foods. Feeding nutrient-dense food during winter, for instance, can disrupt these changes and sicken the animal. 

Behavioral changes

• Loss of natural foraging skills: Animals that become dependent on human food handouts may lose the skills needed to find food on their own, making it harder for them to survive if the artificial food source disappears.
• Habituation to humans: When animals lose their natural fear of humans, they may approach people aggressively for food, posing a threat to human safety. This can cause authorities to destroy the animal to protect the public.
• Increased human-wildlife conflict: Habituated animals may become “pests,” raiding garbage, damaging property, or entering homes. This leads to an increase in vehicle collisions and aggressive encounters. 

Environmental and ecosystem disruption

• Spread of disease: Artificial feeding congregates animals in unnaturally high numbers, increasing the potential for diseases to spread through saliva, feces, and direct contact. This is a risk for both wildlife and humans.

• Overpopulation: A consistent human food source can lead to an unnaturally high population density, which damages the native habitat through over-browsing and can lead to starvation if the food source is removed.

• Predator risk: Feeding wildlife can attract predators like bears and coyotes into close proximity with humans and domestic animals. 

Benefits of seasonal, natural foods

Nutritional health for animals

• Specialized diet: Wild animals have evolved to thrive on a specific, seasonal diet of plants, insects, or other prey found in their natural environment. Their bodies are adapted to digest these foods efficiently.

• Variety of nutrients: A natural diet provides a wide range of vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients that human-provided food cannot match. 

Healthy behaviors

• Instinctive foraging skills: Relying on seasonal food sources ensures animals must forage naturally, maintaining vital survival instincts and physical fitness.

• Healthy population regulation: Natural food availability regulates the wild population. When food is scarce, reproduction and survival rates naturally decrease, preventing overpopulation.

• Natural wariness: Foraging naturally keeps animals cautious and wary of humans, which is crucial for their long-term survival. 

Ecosystem support

• Ecosystem balance: Animal foraging is a critical part of maintaining a balanced ecosystem. It influences the distribution of plants and helps with seed dispersal.

• Migration cycles: Seasonal food scarcity is a trigger for some animals to migrate, and human feeding can disrupt these vital migratory patterns. 

Learn more about keeping wildlife wild, and how feeding wildlife puts you and others at risk, by reading the New Mexico Dept. of Game and Fish New Mexico Wildlife publication:

https://magazine.wildlife.state.nm.us/keep-wildlife-wild-feeding-wildlife-puts-you-and-others-at-risk/

Who do I call to report a wildlife issue?

Is it a domestic animal?

Call the Los Alamos Police Department Animal Control at the non-emergency number at 505-662-8222. If it is an emergency, call 9-1-1.

Is it a wild animal?

Contact your LA-WR-Española District Officer Ariel Perraglio today with questions or concerns at 505-412-8796. If it is an emergency, call 9-1-1.