Zoologists explained why squirrels can not be fed from the hand, and ducks – bread

It is reported that, compared to 2021, residents of the Krasnoyarsk Territory were almost twice as likely to be bitten by foxes, squirrels and ground squirrels. Such emergencies occurred with 90 residents of the region. According to another region – the Sverdlovsk region (figures of the regional Rospotrebnadzor), in the eight months of 2022, 91 people suffered from the bites of wild animals, and almost all of them were bitten by fluffy “saffron mushrooms”. What to do, as zoologists say, wild animals remain wild, even if they get used to the fact that a person feeds them …

It is known that the bite of a wild or stray animal can have the most terrible consequences for a person if the animal is a carrier of rabies. At the advanced stage of this disease, the outcome is one – lethal. But infection can occur even if the animal simply scratches or its saliva gets on the mucous membranes of the mouth, eyes and nose of a person or open wounds. Therefore, after a bite, you need to urgently run to the emergency room for a vaccine, since delaying even one day of death is similar.

“My 10-year-old daughter and I often hand-feed squirrels in the Neskuchny Garden and in the park near the River Station,” said Alla, a Muscovite. – The main thing is not to try to touch them with your hands. But many children feed from their hands and try to pet and touch the animal right there. It bites instinctively. I think it is necessary to explain to children that squirrels and many animals in general, even domestic ones, can be dangerous.

“We always used to come with our 7-year-old daughter to feed squirrels in the park, gave them nuts from the palm of our hand,” says a mother from Yekaterinburg. – My daughter once also decided to give a seed to a squirrel and tried to touch it. And the squirrel, twisting, bit her on the finger. We were very surprised when the emergency room told us that now our daughter needs to be vaccinated against rabies … We did not expect this from a seemingly tame animal …

“Can’t squirrels be hand-fed?” They’ve been doing this all my life, and nothing, I’m asking for clarification from the Krasnoyarsk center for wildlife conservation “Instinct”, in whose region outbreaks of squirrel bites have been recorded.

“It must be remembered that wild animals, including squirrels, are not socialized (this is not a cat or a dog) and therefore they do not know how to carefully take food from their hands,” explains its leader Lyubov Tomiris. – A squirrel can bite by accident, it just does not understand where the hand is and where the food is. Your hand smells like food too. She needs, let’s say, to bite a person several times in order to understand that a hand is not food. Further, the child often tries to grab the squirrel, and then she, too, can bite. Therefore, it is not a fact that if a squirrel has bitten, then it is infected with rabies. People try to feed the squirrels, and squirrels bite even more often than adults.

We do not recommend feeding squirrels from the palm of your hand, especially for children, no matter how much we would like it as entertainment. And then, wild animals have many other diseases dangerous to humans, in addition to rabies. They can also have worms and various skin diseases… Not all infections are transmitted from squirrels and other wild animals to humans, but various diseases can be transmitted from person to animal. That is, such a cross-infection should not be allowed.

The expert adds that squirrel bites are very painful for humans: their teeth are designed to crack nuts, so their jaw pressure is quite strong. The holes remain small, but the arm hurts for a very long time.

If the bite nevertheless happened, you need to steam the wound for 15 minutes in the hottest solution of salt and laundry soap, then treat it with miramistin, peroxide, chlorhexidine and apply a bandage so that dirt does not get into the wound. Use iodine only when nothing else is at hand, but now there are many good remedies that are better than iodine. And after that, be sure to consult a doctor!

– It’s better to just put food on the ground and move away, – recommends Lyubov Tomiris. – It must be remembered that in the summer no animal needs to be fed. Squirrels, for example, eat greens in summer (coniferous seeds, leaves, etc.), and if we feed them with seeds, nuts, then this is fatty food, in the summer they should not eat such food, with constant feeding with seeds and nuts their liver sits down.

In winter, animals can and even need to be fed. Proteins can be given seeds (not fried), nuts (walnuts, pine nuts), carrots, apples, oatmeal. It will not be superfluous to feed forest rodents, mice, etc. in the frosty season. To do this, you can take oatmeal, wheat, come to the forest and scatter food near the roadside. But predators – foxes (neither in the forest, nor in the city, if they run there), martens, etc. neither in winter nor in summer can they be fed, otherwise their hunting instinct disappears.

A separate conversation is about the unfortunate city ducks. Why unfortunate? Zoologists explained that the feeding of ducks by “kind” townspeople during the year led to the fact that the birds stopped flying to the winter quarters to the south, and remained in the cities. First, many of them freeze in winter. Secondly, by feeding them in the summer, as usual, with only bread, citizens undermine the health of waterfowl. After bread, they begin the process of fermentation, in addition, they become infected with a fungus, as people often feed them spoiled, moldy bread. As a result, the ducks die.

“Ducks can and should be fed, but only in winter and only with suitable food,” the expert says. – Better specialized for poultry. Of course, few people will go to buy it on purpose, so you can also use oatmeal, grated apple, carrot or cottage cheese.

In addition, the zoologist explained that bread and millet are poison for all the birds that live in the city. But this “tradition” has been firmly planted in the minds of citizens since Soviet times. Everywhere in the yards one can observe how “compassionate” old women scatter, like sowers on arable land, yellow grains to pigeons, titmouse and sparrows, not suspecting that they are thereby killing birds. And you can feed the birds with the same hercules, wheat.

About what troubles can be expected from crows and pigeons, we separately found out from the ornithologist.

“Crows rarely attack a person, they are smart enough for this,” ornithologist Dmitry Matyunin told MK. – They can only attack during the nesting period, that is, in the spring. But for this, a person needs to disturb them, get close to the nesting site. By the way, let me remind you that a crow is not a “wife” of a crow, as some still believe, a crow and a crow are different types of birds.

– If a crow falls out of its nest, for example, in a city park, crows start to drive cats and dogs away from it, try to attack them. If a child approaches a chick, can crows attack him too?

– Such cases when a crow can attack a person (as a rule, they do it from the back), protecting a chick, are also very rare. Ravens still distinguish between people and cats. Most likely, when a child or an adult appears, they will watch the fallen chick or croak loudly, worry, fly around. These birds try to avoid a person, he is still too large an “object” for them. Some species of owls, such as the bearded owl or the owl, are much more dangerous. They are larger and their claws are stronger. There are cases of attacks by large species of owls (during the nesting period) on hunters and even bears, as a result of which, it happened, the owls took out the eyes of the “offenders”.

More often, a crow can annoy a person by stealing some food from him if he is distracted. By the way, it is not worth feeding these birds even in winter: they already successfully find food for themselves. Crows also love to tease other animals. I once watched a crow sit on a branch of a tree inaccessible to a dog and tease it, very accurately imitating a dog’s yelping. The dog was furious, bouncing, but could not get it.

As for feeding pigeons in parks and squares, according to Dmitry Matyunin, gray-winged birds do not pose a great danger to humans, but they can get dirty with feces – and suddenly. As the ornithologist noted, even more than pigeons, rowan thrushes are “famous” for this: they attack people who disturb them, literally shelling them with feces.

Pigeons can only peck at each other when they fight with an opponent. Although there is still such a moment: when baiting pigeons during a large flock gathering, birds, concentrating on food (in order to have time to grab bread thrown by a person), may accidentally hit or collide with their “breadwinner” in flight. As a result, children can be seriously scared, especially if a dove touches their face with a wing, therefore, when feeding birds with a child, one must be extremely careful. The ornithologist also refuted the myth about the great risk of catching some kind of infection from pigeons. However, the ornithologist warned that feeding the pigeons by hand, as is sometimes done, is highly undesirable, and especially for children, who can then start eating something without washing their hands.