Helen MacDonald, a professor at the University of Cambridge, on why we — humans — like feeding wild animals.
Americans spend over $3 billion each year on food for wild birds, ranging from peanuts to specialized seed mixes, suet cakes, hummingbird nectar and freeze-Âdried mealworms. We still dont clearly understand how supplementary feeding affects bird populations, but theres evidence that its enormous increase in popularity over the last century has changed the behavior and range of some species…
We give food to wild creatures out of a desire to help them, spreading cut apples on snowy lawns for blackbirds, hanging up feeders for chickadees. The British nature writer Mark Cocker holds that the “simple, Franciscan act of giving to birds makes us feel good about life, and redeems us in some fundamental way.” This sense of personal redemption is intimately tied up with the history of bird-Âfeeding. The practice grew out of the humanitarian movement in the 19th century, which saw compassion toward those in need as a mark of the enlightened individual.