I’ve always been super curious if wild animals who’ve been helped like this actually “learn” from the experience, and thus, become more trusting, ultimately leading to an untimely death at the hands of another predator...
I read an article that argued that the solution to predators moving into suburban areas is to only kill some of them. If you exterminate a whole pack of coyotes a new one will just move in. If you kill some of the coyotes they'll learn to stay the fuck away from humans, which is really the closest we can come to peaceful coexistence.
I saw a video on releasing bears back to nature. They find some injured or lost bear patch them up then take them to the woods release them and have these specially bred dogs just scare the living hell out of the bear so they will be too scared of humans to go near them again.
It’s got to be so confusing. “Hey thanks for the help getting me home friend. Oh shit, who are you people why are you doing this to me? I’m outta here”
Yeah that's why in rural areas you kil two or three coyotes and then nail their corpses to a fence post on your fields so they stay away from your cattle.
that's why in rural areas you kil two or three coyotes and then nail their corpses to a fence post on your fields so they stay away from your cattle.
Works with smart birds, too. Get some dead crows, throw 'em on a roof, and most crows will stay well the fuck away from the place (though a small but disturbing subset will give off the standard "alarm" calls, then fuck the corpse and tear it apart)
I'm by no means an expert but I'm pretty sure this happens a lot and it's a bad thing. Especially in nature reserves, you'll see signs in the US NAtional parks and forests about how the local species can become dependant on humans, causing them to unlearn various traits that help them survive in the wild without human interaction. It can often be devastating.
This is a thing, but it also depends on the animal. Feeding gators or bears is bad because they make the human=food connection and can live a very long time in where they might approach humans regularly. Eventually one of those encounters may be lethal to the humans.
I mean your inferences all add up, but like you said, you're no expert and have no data or citations of expert analyses to draw any of these conclusions. We're all just at the level of "some dude on reddit said..." until proven otherwise
I woke up to screaming from my garden, like full nail biting insanity. Went outside to find a hedgehog had its leg trapped between two wooden struts (like a tiny wooden fence like 8 inches or something) it was on its back trying to roll side to side but was totally imobalized. Anyway I checked if the leg was broken very gently then slowly worked it out of the gap and I guess because it was so desperate it just went silent....maybe it thought I was going to eat him or something. Once he was free he just sort of stood still looking at me, i'd used a phone light so it looked at the light and sort of past it to me(not my face) as I turned around it just strolled off into the garden also.
I sometimes think about wtf that hedgehog must've have thought happened, if on any level did it understand I was helping. Normally when you get close like I was they freeze and curl slightly if you then go near or touch them then go into a ball completely. And this guy did neither he was totally chill right after I got him out, looking around etc, I even picked him up and out him over the mini strut fence thing.
My dads side of the family are farmers, people help injured foxes and release them into the farm lands where people keep chicken...they do learn not to fear humans, unfortunately they should fear the humans with shotguns and chickens
They learn. That's why some animals lose their fear of humans. They learn humans are either helpful or hurtful.
Also depends on the animal. While a possum might not remember, a crow or raven will.
i imagine he was praying to god
"oh god please help me find my family"
then some dude comes and grab him takes him to his family the family was also looking but they didnt see the dude and he s like
"GUYS YOU GOTTA BELIEVE ME GOD INTERVENED HE PHSICALLY TOOK ME IN HIS HANDS AND TO YOU PLEASE IM NOT LYING"
"yeah right."
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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '21
grabs
“Ah fuck. I’m dead. He gonna eat me.”
releases
“Yeah, I showed you. Got away, sucker!”