Is it good to feed waterfowl?
No, artificial feeding is actually harmful to waterfowl.
Artificial feeding of waterfowl can cause:
- Poor nutrition
- Increased hybridization
- Water pollution
- Delayed migration
- Concentrations at unnatural sites
- Overcrowding
- Spread of disease
- Costly management efforts
- Unnatural behavior
- Cumulative effects
Disease
When ducks and geese feed on scattered corn or bread, they eat in the same place where they defecate. Not healthy. In addition, large concentrations of waterfowl would facilitate the spread of disease. Also not healthy. Diseases generally not transmissible in a wild setting find overcrowded and unsanitary conditions very favorable.
Most waterfowl die-offs in the past 10 years have involved artificial feeding:
(edit: referring to NY State Parks)
- 2,000 mallards and black ducks were killed in an outbreak of Duck Virus Enteritis in Central New York.
- Another fatal disease, Aspergillus, occurs when food is scattered too liberally. It piles up and becomes moldy.
- In Cheektowaga, New York, hundreds of ducks were killed in an outbreak of Avian Botulism at a feeding site. A local ordinance was later passed to prohibit the feeding of waterfowl. An added bonus ... rat populations that fed well on waterfowl handouts have since declined.
- In some cases, humans have been affected by disease transmitted by waterfowl. In Skaneateles, New York, swimmers contracted Swimmer's Itch, caused by a parasite that was emitted from ducks attracted to artificial feeding at the town park.
MANY MORE REASONS ON THE BELOW LINK:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7001.html
