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[urbpan]

I've written the very beginning pages and the last page of the next Urban Nature Walk zine. Now I just have to work on the middle. Here's a look at the ending:




You aren't supposed to feed wild animals, and you really shouldn't hand-feed them. Feeding animals causes them to lose their wariness of humans, which is an important survival attribute for urban animals. Food that we provide for animals is almost always bad for them-surely white bread bagels are not good for a gull's digestive system.

But people who call themselves animal lovers willingly commit this small sin of corrupting a wild creature's habits and diet. Why is it such a strong impulse?

In John McLoughlin's "The Animals Among Us," he supposes that people feed urban birds "for the solace of...feeling the whir of their wings...sensing the freedom of flight above the stinking cities that lean close around them. " Perhaps, but there's something else there. People hand-feed squirrels, who are flightless, with much the same enthusiasm as they feed birds. Unwise people have hand-fed foxes, moose, and even alligators. What I think people are reaching for, when they hold out a peanut or pizza crust, is the connection with nature that--as a species--we have lost our immediate touch with. When an animal comes so close that you can see yourself reflected in its eyes, in some very small way you are connecting with wildness itself.

Comments

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

On the contrary, I find it amazingly comforting to think of myself (and my bagel) as part of an ecosystem that birds are exploiting! (but this may not be how other animal-feeders feel...)