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Such a statement has not been proven to have been issued by the Park Service.
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Agreed.
Moving on…
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On the other hand, my experience with wildlife, which is lifelong, is different from yours. Feeding wildlife interferes with natural population fluctuations as it allows for a higher survival rate among newborns. Mother raccoons that are being fed by "helpful" humans on a regular basis will bring their newly weaned young and to the food and teach them that that is where the food is.
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While I agree that parent critters teach their children, are these raccoons in a national park or in your neighborhood? Can you provide proof that raccoons
only eat from handouts and never anything else? While on the topic, can you provide any proof that raccoons in suburbia don’t have hunting skills?
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While survival rates increase, foraging skills decrease. This is only one example. All one has to do is look at the difference between feral barn cats and domestic house cats. Domestic house cats may hunt for sport, but put one into the situation of having to hunt to feed itself and it won't survive. It's country cousins on the other hand do quite well without human intervention.
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Any proof that "foraging skills decrease"? Also, as a reminder, the topic is about animals at national parks. I pointed out that an animal raised at a home or lab would probably never establish hunting skills. That said, can you provide proof that a wild animal that is fed occasionally would lose the hunting skills?
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I have neighbors who have a place here and a place on the edge of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve down in the valley. She feeds Javelina. Buys flour tortillas at Costco by the gross. The mother pigs bring their babies as soon as they stop nursing to her porch for their food. Over the years "her" herd grew to scary numbers.
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An interesting story, but again, this does not sound like a national park, it sounds like a housing development, a.k.a suburbia.
Also, what is interesting to me here is that different animals will adapt in different ways. In any event, and I hope this doesn’t come across as my being obstinate, as that’s not my intent, but your example does not make a case for an animal losing its hunting skills, but rather using them to take advantage of the circumstances.
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The state Game and Fish dept. was called by a neighbor who'd had enough and they showed up in force and in no uncertain terms told her she was interfering with the natural course of the Javelinas' life cycle and population. They trapped and moved the herd and issued her a written warning, threatening that if the activity continued she would be fined and forced to pay for the relocation costs.
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Really, they act as enforcer, judge and jury in your state? When I asked the local game warden about neighbors feeding wildlife, he said “So?” The local game wardens don’t have a problem in this area, unless it occurs in a National Park. I understand laws differ in different areas. I also acknowledge the point that when people feed wildlife regularly (“regularly” being the key criteria), animals will take advantage. However, again, this doesn’t prove anything about animals losing hunting skills as a result of being fed by visitors, which appears your central point.
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Feeding birds can be done in such a way that it doesn't interfere with seasonal migratory patterns. Our area is full of hummingbirds in summer. They naturally migrate south in winter as it can get quite cold here and nothing grows in winter that they can eat. This is how it is supposed to be.
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I read that the overwhelming majority of humming birds do not live 1 year. According to the articles, if they do live more than a year they may live up to 6 years.
I’d like to see an example where feeding some humming birds significantly alters the population of humming birds, or can alter their typical migration patterns. It may be the case. I don’t know.
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It's possible to get them to stay around all winter by keeping feeders out. I take mine down after the first hard freeze. Leaving them up is selfish and harmful to the natural pattern of existence for these birds. Does the person who feeds birds all winter that should have flown south congratulate himself on "saving them a trip"?
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I can’t answer our question about someone congratulating themself. I suggest you ask someone who does this. But the bigger point: Is man not part of the natural pattern of existence on this planet? If your answer is yes, then anything man does is also part of the natural pattern. If no, then can you explain how man is not part of nature?
If we can return to the topic of feeding animals in a national park, the interesting thing here, and I have to admit I hadn’t thought of it as around here, the national parks are closed to the public due to snow about 5-6 months out of the year. Any opportunistic habits the critters may acquire during the warm season, is quickly lost.
If your postulate about animals losing their hunting skills were true, then the populations of animals in the national parks nearby would diminish. I haven’t come across any evidence to support this. Can you find any evidence? I looked but did not find anything suggestive either way.
Anyway, in parks where the conditions don’t close the parks for part of the year, I could see where consistent feeding would bring more animals in closer contact with more people. I already wrote that leads to people getting injured and the injuries are why the NPS doesn’t want to get sued again and again. I have seen no evidence that feeding wildlife occasionally causes them to lose hunting skills. That appears the key question in this debate.