6 Min Read • 21 days ago Good Intentions Gone Wrong – Human Wildlife Interactions

Guest Post: Diane Mitchell, Red Rock Creative

If we’re being honest, we’ve probably all done it. Whether it was a guilty pleasure or something more brazen, most of us who’ve spent time outdoors in BC would probably be lying if we said we’d always kept our distance from wildlife.

From adorable whiskey jacks landing on our fingers to cute yellow-pine chipmunks with a taste for trail mix, the truth is, these critters are hard to resist. But as with most things in life, human-wildlife interactions fall on a spectrum. And the line between what we might perceive as harmless and behaviour that will cause the death of the animal can be hard to spot – and it’s certainly not as clear as those lines down the back of that chipmunk.

A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear

What is it we learn at school? Every action causes an equal and opposite reaction. We feed the bear. The bear will end up dead. Not quite what our physics teachers meant, but the consequences of our actions are real. Along the spectrum from the trail mix-munching chipmunks are tragic, heartbreaking consequences. A fed bear really is a dead bear, euthanized from becoming too habituated to humans and their food. 

Some people have good intentions and deliberately feed wildlife. They might be trying to help, making up for a loss of natural food sources. But they are not helping. It can just take one time for a bear to get the taste for human food for that bear’s life to be destined for an unnatural death. It may have to be euthanized, or it may get hit by a car because it loses its natural instinct to keep away from us and instead comes into our communities looking for food.

And it’s not just the bears. We are truly blessed to share our home with magnificent predators including bears, cougars, coyotes, wolves and bald eagles. As skilled as they are at hunting, predators will often take the easy option and eat human food if it’s there. Let’s not be the ‘delivery driver’ and leave a takeout meal for them. It might be one of the last things they do.

Tramping Through Their Homes

It can be hard to grasp the implications of our actions. Wildlife sightings feel special because we generally see few animals, especially larger mammals. Out of sight, out of mind. But they are there – hiding from us – and we are tramping through their homes.

The subalpine is an area with huge consequences for our actions. We see Instagram-worthy summer wildflowers or wide open spaces begging to be explored on foot, mountain bike, dirt bike, ATV or snowmobile. And when we say “we”, we mean a large community of recreationists in BC’s natural spaces. Even away from the insanely busy sites such as Joffre Lakes Provincial Park, some trail counters show upwards of 300 people a day. Imagine 300 strangers traipsing through your kitchen or bedroom on any given day. Now imagine that on repeat.

The subalpine has a short growing season. Animals have only a small window of time to eat or stash enough food for the winter. Disturbing them limits their ability to survive. Every trail displaces wildlife. Every trail changes the behaviour of those animals. And we make it worse with unauthorized trails. When a new trail is permitted, it is because a study of cultural and wildlife values has shown that the cumulative impact of trail use will not have too much impact on the wildlife. As it can take years for vegetation to regrow after damage, any unauthorized trail has lasting consequences.

While the intentions of trailbuilders are to enjoy the outdoors, benefit from the positive well-being that comes from connecting to nature and provide that for others, the ‘cause and effect’ is that wildlife suffers. Period. 

This is also true in winter. Mountain goats are extremely sensitive to being disturbed, even at a distance. They live life on the edge, where starvation or predation might only be one snowmobiler away. These incredible animals have little food to get them through the winter. If a goat is forced to escape to lower elevations, predation is far more likely for a big, white (i.e., not camouflaged) animal with little in their “tanks” to run. Even if they stay in the alpine, compacted snowmobile tracks make it easier for wolves to enter mountain goat territory. In short, snowmobiling causes the death of these beautiful animals. That’s why there are Approved Ungulate Winter Ranges to give them the space – undisturbed – to survive.

Keeping Wildlife Wild – What Can We Do?

Conservationists don’t want to keep people out of the frontcountry and backcountry. The benefit of connecting to nature is huge. But we must be respectful.

Leave no trace that you were ever there. That means no unauthorized trails, campsites or fire pits. It means leaving behind no food residue or human poop (even hidden under a rock). Learn how to dig “cat holes” to bury your biodegradable waste instead, and pack out what you pack in. And if you find any trash along the trail, pack that out too! Stay on authorized trails or sites and please, please obey gates or closure signs. They are not there to p**s you off. They are there to prevent the death of the wildlife who are simply trying to live in their own home.

Be greedy and keep your food to yourself. Know how to keep food safe from paws and claws, not just in the backcountry but in any outdoor space. Follow WildSafeBC best practices for keeping wildlife wild.

In short, we can keep wildlife, and ourselves, safe and healthy by doing our homework and following the rules. No, not everyone likes homework and rules, but in this instance, it will get you an A+ from the wildlife that we all love so much.