1. Feeding Wildlife
Division of Fisheries and Wildlife

2. Issues with feeding wildlife
• Damage
• Disease Transmission
• Habituation
• Public Safety Threats
• Increased Wildlife Mortality

3. Damage
• Property damage
– Home/garage/outbuilding/vehicle entries
• Agricultural depredations
– Livestock
– Rabbits and chickens
– Bee Hives
– Crop Damage
• Pet depredations

4. Disease Transmission
2
• Rabies 1
• Mange
• Canine Distemper
• Toxoplasmosis 3
• Raccoon Roundworm
5 4

5. Habituation
• Occurs when:
– Acclimated to human presence
– Lack of threats
– Unnatural food sources
– Behavior rewarded

6. Public Safety
• Habituated individuals
• Aggressive behaviors
• Home entries

7. Increased Wildlife Mortality
• Lethal removal of public safety threats
• Lethal removal due to property damage
• Death from disease (increased transmission at
feeding areas)
• Roadkill mortality
– Crossing major roads to access human food
sources
– Dispersal of young into other residential areas in
search of human food sources

8. Intentional /Direct
INTENTIONAL Feeding
-Bird feeders, squirrel
Direct
-Bird feeders,feeders, food piles for
squirrel
feeders, foodbears,for
piles feeding animals
bears, feeding animalsby hand
by
Unintentional / hand
Indirect Feeding Indirect
-Garbage, pet -Garbage, pet food,
food, compost, picnic
compost, picnic tables,
tables, BBQ’s
BBQ’s

9. Behavioral
• Direct Feeding Changes • Habituation
• Bird Feeders • Lack of threats • Home invasions
• Intentionally • Visiting Neighbors
attracting bears
• Compost
• Garbage Increased
Leads to Chance of
Indirect Mortality

10. Bears as an example
• Northampton has many areas of excellent
natural bear habitat
• Allowing bears access to human-food sources
dramatically increases human-bear conflicts
– Environmental Police respond to more bear calls
in Northampton than any other town

11. #298 2010-2011
#309; 2010
#323; 2010-2011
#269; 2009
#280; 2009

12. Bear 298 and 323
Feeding Sites

13. Bear 323 – Feeding site

14. Incidents related to feeding in
Northampton
• Increased use of residential areas by bears
• Damage to bird feeders/garbage cans
reported across town
• Damage to chicken coops and rabbit hutches
• Attacks on pygmy goats and pigs
• Home and shed break-ins
• Bear eating food meant for feral cats led to
denning next to I-91 and office park

15. Preventing Wildlife Conflicts
• You MUST address all types of feeding
– Indirect
• Garbage, dumpsters, pet food, compost, etc.
– Direct
• Bird feeders, hand feeding wildlife, etc.
• Everyone MUST participate
• Enforcement will be necessary
• Will take time

16. Questions?
Stone Wall Drive, Today: 11am