Interfering With Nature

[cecil39]

after watching quite a lot of wildlife films on tv, I am confused as to the reasons for not helping animals or birds in distress, eg not giving food to a starving polar bear and her cub, even when this is possible, "because this would be interfering" when the poor things have already been doped, measured, and had their young handled and wieghed, surely "interfering" by saving their lives by providing a meal to boost their strength to see them through to their next kill, would not be a bad thing and would surely not be enough to make them "dependant" on humans? if you were there and could help, could you or should you just turn your back and leave them to starve?should we even be feeding the birds?

[boxtops]

I believe that some of the wildlife reporters anguish over that question as well - it must be awful to stand back and watch an animal chasing and killing another one, or watch the seals being chased by whales - etc. However - they are reporting, not on a Save Wildlife mission. If they fed that polar bear once, she would still be hungry again tomorrow, it can't be helped. I couldn't see those things happen, I don't like seeing it on the TV.

[ChillDoubt]

Feeding birds seems only fair to me as we're constanlty encroaching on their natural habitat with building, re-generation etc. The fatballs I make are made from waste product/unwanted food(fat form grill, crusts unused) so to me it's recycling too, to the benefit of an animal.
I must admit I too was uncomfortable watching the polar bear and her cub slowly starving in front of the crews eyes, it must have been very difficult for them but they had to abide by the rules of Svalbaard(sp?).
Luckily the suggestion was that they may in all probability got by with the discovery of the whale carcass.
The only time I can recall a crew getting involved(Attenborough programme in the 80's) was one of a young bird wading across a slat-flat that had recently had rain. Salt began to form around the young wader's legs and it would have drowned, but the crew stepped in and stopped nature taking its course.

[emmie]

if animals like Polar bears become reliant on human intervention, then more of them will encroach on human habitat, which already happens in places like Churchill in Canada. The bears scavenge for food, and any number have been killed or at least darted and moved away from the area. If their natural habitat is being eroded by global warming, which scientists believe, like the polar ice fields, then they will come inland a lot more. So if the makers of these films end up feeding them, then they will learn that they can get food that way.
No one likes seeing animals starving to death, however it's mankind's stupidity when it comes to poaching for elephant tusks, and killing whales and other marine creatures for a relatively small amounts of their meat or in the case of elephants the ivory. Sharks are killed in their hundreds of thousands for their fins, so the Chinese can put it in soup, and that is barbaric.

[boxtops]

Oh how I agree about the elephants. That latest seizure of ivory at the airport in Africa showed that 300 elephants suffered.

[puddle-duck]

I thought the same thing when I was watching the documentary about the polar bear & her cubs. She had already lost one cub and wasn't looking too healthy & the risk was she wasn't producing enough milk to feed her last remaining cub.

The filming crew explained that they couldn't help her as it was illegal in that part of the Arctic to feed them. Also the danger of feeding the polar bears is that they would associate humans with food which could prove dangerous for both.

It was really sad to watch though.

[emmie]

it is always sad, but quite honestly it's man that is the problem for most wildlife, not other animals or indeed their environments, many species have survived millions of years, it's only us that has changed that balance.
Watching a baby elephant die, the mother trying to desperately get it to stand was heartbreaking, however she had no choice but to move away eventually otherwise she would likely have died alongside her baby. The cameraman said that he felt choked watching and filming it, but they cannot interfere, otherwise where will it stop?

[Ann]

I couldn't watch it - I know it is only nature but I would be too distressed and the images would stay with me.
We feed the birds every day - in fact they get fed better than us! OH has just popped to the shops before the snow arrives to "get some cheap apples for them" I have just checked their food - one sack of sunflower hearts, 2 cartons dried mealworms, one large wholemeal loaf, 2 packets raisins, peanut net, 2 boxes suet, several apples and some old mince pies! Phew a positive banquet ......

[emmie]

ann, i throw out food for the birds, and to other wildlife, we get quite a lot of foxes, you can hear them howling at night, a more eerie noise you will never hear.
I was considering getting a bird table, feeders, but i really don't want to attract the pigeons, they do get enough from the bread i put out.

[ladybirder]

I couldn't bear to watch these programmes anymore it's so heartbreaking and a lot of it is our fault. And those dead elephants this week, I saw red. But feeding the birds I shall continue to do, I feel it is our duty to help them because of what we've done to their habitat and the pesticides we have used to their detriment. I also feed the foxes. I would feed the whole world if I could.
Em, bread won't do the pigeons much good, not on its own anyway.

[puddle-duck]

I also watched the one with the baby elephant, it was distressing. I think the BBC got a few complaints about it.

On the same programme it showed the shoebill leaving one of it's chicks to starve to death whilst caring for the stronger chick. Do you not think in that type of situation they could have removed the unwanted chick and took it someplace where it could be looked after?

[VHG]

>>>Do you not think in that type of situation they could have removed the unwanted chick and took it someplace where it could be looked after?

Oh come on. It goes on all the time, it is natures way, survival of the fittest.

Some birds, like Eagles, the one or two strongest in the nest will often eat the weakest.

How do we go round and save all th weakest birds.

Anyway we kill millions and millions of chickens every year in the UK for food so what is the difference.

[puddle-duck]

Yeah I'm aware that it goes on all the time VHG I just thought as they were there filming it and knew what the fate of the wee chick was going to be they might have done something.

[emmie]

they usually can't, with good reason, as already explained.

[pusskin]

I'm about to catch up on iplayer to watch some of these programmes.
I dread choking back the tears, but have to watch it.

[emmie]

if you don't like seeing these lovely animals being left for dead, as some would say, it's the survival of the fittest don't watch, nature is cruel, but mankind is worse.

[Ann]

Bread should be soaked before throwing out it says in my bird book. Also supplement it with suet and/or raisins, sultanas and fruit and sunflower hearts for energy. I have just thrown out the usual half apples which the blackbirds absolutely love. I also found a squashy orange which I am trying them with, but they are wary of it ... it does say in the book they eat most fruits including bananas, oranges and tomatoes. I have never tried these - does anyone else feed their birds with these?

[emmie]

i will give that a go, had some bread in the freezer, which i defrosted, broke it up into little pieces and left it out for the birds, next time will soak it first, mind you it's snowing heavily now, so it's going to get wet anyway...

[cecil39]

I know that sort of thing happens in nature all the time, and we dont see it, I just think if you chance to see it, you could help, those people are interfering all the time for research and with the idea of using the information films as "entertainment".
I do feed the birds with diferent sorts of seed, fat balls etc, also bread, yes I know bread is not suposed to be good for them, just as chips are not good for me, but it will keep them alive if there is nothing else on offer.
I am not going to watch any more of that sort of thing on tv, its a shame to show all that when there are so many lovely things to see in the world.

[emmie]

ask yourself this, and it is something i have considered a long time, if you were starving, if the world suffered a cataclysmic catastrophe that ruined crops, and decimated livestock like pigs, cattle, with no chance that they could replenish quickly enough, would you eat any other animal to survive. I believe that man's natural instinct is to survive, to go on, and anything that is edible would be eaten, including all the species that we love, like elephants, polar bears, or even in the worse case scenario, each other.

[atalanta]

If a female polar bear with very young cubs is Really Really starving, to the point where she has no milk for the cubs, she may well kill and eat the cubs. They might well die anyway, and if she eats, she will survive and probably produce another litter or several litters in the future. When it comes down to it, her survival comes first.
" Nature red in tooth and claw "; and yes, it is drastic and desperate.