TRABZON

Scientists have warned against the unconscious and excessive feeding of wild animals by citizens, highlighting the risks it poses to their natural behavior, health and human-wildlife interactions.

Due to the fluctuations in air temperatures caused by climate change in the eastern Black Sea region, wild animals such as foxes, jackals and wolves, as well as bears that do not hibernate, descend to settlements where they smell food.

Wild animals also damage highland houses, beehives and cattle and sheep in the settlements where they enter.

Bears, whose numbers are determined to have increased compared to previous years in inventory studies, make citizens uneasy as they wander off from their natural habitat and enter settlement areas. Stating that bears can enter houses where they smell food, some wildlife experts point out that overfeeding in settlements is risky.

Wildlife Ecology Specialist Professor Dr. Şağdan Başkaya warned that excessive feeding by citizens is harmful.

“People leave food in nature, but it is very wrong for citizens to feed wild animals. This method does more harm to the wild animal. After that, the animal’s life span is shorter than its natural life span, and as they get accustomed to the ready-made food, it takes them away from their natural characteristics,” Başkaya said.

“As wild animals get closer to people, more unwanted situations happen to them; their life span becomes shorter. Their digestive systems get disrupted as they get used to consuming ready-made foods. We do not find it right for our people to feed in this way,” he said.