Don’t feed the bears! But the birds are fine, New Tahoe studies show

Don’t feed the bears!

Wildlife biologists and forest rangers have been preaching this mantra for nearly a century in national parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite, and for decades in areas where urban development has increasingly encroached on wildlife habitat.

Why don’t you feed the birds? It may be a different story for at least one bird species in Lake Tahoe.

Snowshoeers and cross-country skiers regularly feed tiny mountain chickadees high above the northern shore of an Alpine lake on the California-Nevada border. Black-capped Chickadee Ridge birds even perch on their outstretched arms to grab offered seeds.

A new study by researchers at the University of Nevada has shown that adding food from feeders or by hand to tits’ natural food sources does not negatively affect them, as long as the proper food is used and certain rules are followed.

“It’s a beautiful experience when birds fly around and land on your hand to grab food. We call it “becoming a Disney princess,” said Benjamin Sonnenberg, a biologist and behavioral ecologist who co-authored the six-year study.

But he also acknowledged that “there is always the question of when it is appropriate or inappropriate to feed birds in the wild.”

State wildlife officials said this week that they generally do not approve of feeding wild animals. But Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesperson Ashley Sanchez acknowledged that concerns about potential harm are based on speculation, not scientific evidence.

The latest research project under the wing of Professor Vladimir Pravosudov’s Tit Research Laboratory has installed feeders in the Forest Service’s Mount Rose Wilderness and tracked mountain tit populations at two altitudes, both those that visited and those that did not visit the feeders.

“If we saw an increase in population size or a decrease in population size, this could mean that we were harming animals by feeding them,” said co-author Joseph Welklin. “Our study shows that feeding these mountain chickadees in the wild during winter does not affect their population dynamics.”

Sonnenberg said he understands the concerns about adding wildlife food to the Tahoe, where bears attracted by the litter get into sometimes fatal trouble, but not to humans. Bears may eventually be killed because they are no longer afraid of humans. He grew up in Bozeman, Montana, and fondly remembers the grizzlies and black bears in Yellowstone National Park, where he learned at an early age “not to feed them intentionally or accidentally.”

“Feeding wild animals is context specific and has its own nuances,” he said.

Conflicts between bear and man were extremely rare in Tahoe when Ranger Smith began to fight Yogi and Boo Boo over pick-a-nick baskets in the fictional Jellystone Park in the popular cartoon that debuted in 1960. But between 1960 and 1980, the population around Lake Tahoe exploded from 10,000 to 50,000 to 90,000 in the summer. Peak days are now approaching 300,000 visitors.

The growth spurred further development invading the bear’s natural habitat, leading some so-called “garbage bears” to become dependent on unsecured garbage for food. yards.

“Do you need to feed the bears? Of course not,” Sonnenberg said. “But given the millions of people who feed birds around the world, it’s important to understand the impact that food has on wild populations, especially in a changing world.”

Mountain chickadees are of particular interest because they are one of the few bird species that escape the cold winters of the Sierra instead of migrating to warmer climates. They hide tens of thousands of food each fall and then return to the hidden treasure throughout the winter to survive.

According to the findings, published last month in the journal Ornithology, they are “avid foragers and rely on specialized spatial memory abilities to extract hidden food from the environment during the harsh winter months.”

“When they come up to you and grab food,” Sonnenberg said, “if they fly off into the woods and you don’t see them anymore, they probably save that food for later.”

The study states that their visits to feeders instead of using their own stash “may be due in part to the seemingly intrusive nature of caching behavior, as tits will cache available resources until they are exhausted.”

The project involved scientists from the Department of Psychology at the Canadian University of Western Ontario, the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Biology of Organisms at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, and the University of Oklahoma Biological Research.

Sanchez said the Nevada Department of Wildlife’s concern stems from observations that tits have shown a level of domestication towards potential predators – humans – which could make them more susceptible to other predators in the wild.

She also said in an email that the number of people hand-feeding birds at Chickadee Ridge has increased significantly in recent years, “meaning that the chances of someone feeding them inappropriate food or handling them inappropriately, also increased.”

Sonnenberg added in an email that the researchers “are not directly in favor or against feeding Chickadee Ridge chickadees.”

But “our results show that this additional food does not result in a drastic reduction in the Sierra Nevada tit population (increasing to a density that can be dangerous) or a drastic reduction due to harmful effects,” he wrote.

Anyone who feeds the birds should only give food similar to that found in their natural environment, such as unsalted pine nuts or sunflower seeds with black oil, and not bread or other human food, he said.

“And always treat animals with respect,” Sonnenberg said. “Behave like you’re at their house and you’re visiting them.”

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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