Teach Your Children Well
What we can learn from the dolphin debacle.
Last week, horrific photos circulated the web. You likely saw them: hordes of beachgoers manhandling a vulnerable La Plata dolphin, parading it in the heat where it quickly dehydrated and died.
Later, claims were made that it was already dead, washed ashore with many other corpses. Why then, you might ask, was everyone clamoring to pet this one? This video of it still moving should answer that.
Details aside, the photos struck a chord — perhaps due to a similar story, still fresh in our minds, and the recent rise in mass deaths of bees, birds, fish and sea mammals. All events that raise a troubling question:
Are we so disconnected from nature that we’ve lost our will to preserve it?
I’d like to think not (or you wouldn’t be reading this). We all want to keep wildlife around — for our kids and our future. But do we know how?
11 WAYS TO BE WILDLIFE WISE
1. Keep Your Distance. Ignoring that isn’t a sign of bravery. It’s endangering wildlife. Close proximity to wildlife may cause them to flee their young, food, or water source, and not return.
2. Puddles Aren’t Just for Splashing. Protecting vernal pools is a matter of life and death for animals. Thirsty wildlife rely on these to survive. But illegal off-roading reduces pools to mud, killing amphibians that live in them. Amphibians that keep biting insects in check — hello midges!
3. Dunes Aren’t Just Sand. They contain flora for nesting and migrating animals. Treat dunes as though they’re someone’s home. Because they are.
4. Be a Top Dog. Keep Fido and wildlife safe by following leash regulations and rules. Dogs often chase animals from their nests, harming offspring.
5. Prevent Waste-traps. Plastic entanglement kills 100,000 marine animals each year. It’s important to cut plastic six-pack rings and to rinse and crush/cut containers so animals aren’t trapped inside. Eliminate plastic (use glass and paper when possible). Because what’s convenient for us, is often lethal to them.
6. Feed Birds the Right Way. And don’t feed wild animals at all. Human food lacks proper nutrients for animals, resulting in life-threatening deformities. Instead of breadcrumbs, feed park fowl tiny pieces of shredded lettuce, kale or oats. And keep pet food inside, out of wild critters’ mitts.
7. Slow Down and Pipe Down. Animals that awaken early from winter hibernation may die of starvation. For non-hibernating animals, noise disrupts feeding, which can be tenuous during winter. In short, keep clear of wildlife, caves, and burrows whenever possible.
8. Remove outdoor poison, traps and bug zappers. These kill beneficial insects and helpful predators — crucial links in nature’s food chain.
9. Avoid fertilizers and chemical weed killers. These pollute ground water, destroy lakes, rivers, and their inhabitants.
10. Protect natural areas. Have a forest nearby with dead trees or thick brush? Don’t be so quick to cut them down. They’re the cozy homes of owls, squirrels, and other wildlife.
11. Ask the Experts. Do not touch or try to capture wildlife. If an animal is injured, seemingly abandoned or dead, please contact a ranger or certified wildlife group. Or get certified and become a wildlife hero, yourself.
Remember: Wild animals are neither toys nor pests. They all do their part in regulating the ecosystem. A system we’re very much connected to.
Regina Tuzzolino grew up in rural USA and has resided in Canada, New Zealand and the UK. This is in memory of her father, who believed: “To enjoy nature, one must protect it.”
