The best way to protect our local wildlife is to ensure they stay in their natural habitats. To keep our wild neighbors safe, healthy, and free, please follow these essential guidelines.
The best way to protect our local wildlife is to ensure they stay in their natural habitats. To keep our wild neighbors safe, healthy, and free, please follow these essential guidelines.
It may be tempting to “rescue” a young animal, but wild creatures belong in the wild. Here is why keeping them is harmful:
Wild animals stay where food is easy to find. By removing attractants, you force wildlife to move back into their natural habitats, keeping your property and the animals safe.
Cats can be wonderful, loving companion animals. However, cats are also invasive predators, and cats that spend time outdoors regularly injure and kill wild animals.
Even cats that are fed by humans hunt and play with wild animals, and even when prey are not killed right away, they often die when their teeth- and claw-wounds become infected.
Collars with bells can help wild animals to avoid cats, but cats are deft hunters, and often learn to move quietly despite having bells on their collars.
It is important to keep your bird feeders and water baths clean and free of disease. Bird feeders and water baths should be scrubbed clean at least once a week and each time they are refilled. After regular cleaning, disinfect feeders and baths with a ten-percent solution of bleach water and allow them to air dry before refilling.
Since wood objects cannot be disinfected properly, it is best to provide metal or plastic feeders and baths.
Finally, make sure you store excess seed in a secure, airtight container, as insects and rodents can feed on and contaminate the seed.
There are a number of ways to help prevent birds from striking your windows. First, you can make the window appear as a wall/solid object by closing drapes or blinds on the inside of the windows, or by applying stickers or strips of paper to the windows. Some glass manufacturers design etched window panes, which may also help make glass visible to birds.
Second, you can prevent birds from hitting the window by hanging the screen from eaves about a foot away from the window, so that birds that fly towards the glass will bounce off the screen without hitting the window. However, be sure to hang the screen such that birds and other animals cannot get caught.
In temperate areas of the United States, including the central valley, animals begin nesting in January and end in late August. So, the safest time to trim trees and shrubs is between October and December. When you prune trees and shrubs (even between October and December), carefully check for nests and be sure any animals (especially babies) are gone before you prune.
Birds, mammals, and turtles can be seriously injured and die from becoming ensnared in or swallowing fishing line or hooks. When you leave your fishing site, take fishing lines and hooks with you, and if you see fishing line on shores or in the water, please pick them up and discard them safely in the trash.
Poisons and sticky traps are not humane solutions to nuisance animals or infestations, and they frequently harm animals other than those that are targeted.
Poison ingested by animals harms predators (including hawks, cats, and dogs) that consume those poisoned animals. Poisoning results in a slow and painful death. Likewise, sticky traps result in broken bones and destroyed feathers, skin, and scales.