Not enough people fear nature, and it REALLY shows, I’m not saying you can’t or shouldn’t go out and enjoy nature, I think going out and getting out of the city and really experiencing the world in a more raw form is incredibly beneficial, to both your physical and mental health. However with that said, nature isn’t a petting zoo, and it isn’t a theme park, it’s real, and it WILL kill you if you aren’t careful.
One thing I see far too often that especially pisses me off, is how many people, seemingly without fear, interact with wildlife so freely. Wild animals won’t and don’t see you as a friend, they won’t understand that you’re trying to feed them. Charity doesn’t exist in nature, if you’re holding food and a wild animal is nearby it sees you as competition to get that food. Handing that food over, will not translate over as charity. It will fight (and potentially kill) you for that food.
Even if an interaction with a wild animal doesn’t result in you getting injured or killed, doesn’t mean it went well, since so often human food isn’t fit for (and can even kill) wild animals.
I know you want to help, I know you want to be nice, but giving wild animals doesn’t help. Best case scenario is the animal gets sick from the food you gave it and gets lucky and doesn’t come across another person who wants to feed it. The worst case scenario isn’t that the food kills the animal, the worse case scenario is that the animal begins to associate people with food. This increases human and wild animal interactions, this also then increases chances of aggressive or deadly interactions, as well as the potential for cross species illness transfer and a potential pandemic. And sadly often when an animal has killed a person, wild or not, they have to be put down, for the safety of the surrounding community.
The problem with interacting with, or trying to “befriend” a wild animal, is too many people think ‘herbivore = nice and peaceful’ which couldn’t be farther than the truth. Herbivore animals, are prey animals. Prey animals are CONSTANTLY on high alert for other animals that may want to make a meal out of them. You as a person are an omnivore (I don’t give a fuck what your diet is, that’s not the same as the classification of a proper diet for your species), omnivores are predator (or predator & prey) animals.
Herbivores don’t have the luxury of just seeing you and leaving, they have to fight back or run away. If they feel they can’t run away they will fight for their life, even though you know you aren’t a danger to them, doesn’t mean they do or can know that too. A predator animal is only going to attack for a few reasons it’s hungry and sees you as food, you’re standing in the way of the food it wants, or you are getting too close to its young. So for the most part, if you stay out of the way, give them plenty of space, and make yourself seem like too much of a risk to try to eat, they’ll leave you alone.
A Buffalo isn’t going to see you as a friend if you try to approach it, it’s going to think you’re trying to kill it, or might try to kill it no matter how nice or gentle you try to speak or approach it. It will treat you as you’d treat a random man breaking into your house, by defending itself and its family up to and including killing you.
