NMG&F Conservation Officer Ariel Perraglio

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

When it comes to feeding the wildlife, Los Alamos is facing a problem and is grappling with how to effectively resolve it.

For most of the Los Alamos County Councilors during the May 16 work session, the solution is education.

New Mexico Game and Fish (NMG&F) Conservation Officer Ariel Perraglio reported during the work session that in the past year she has received more than 70 emails and phone calls regarding negative wildlife and human interaction in Los Alamos. In comparison, she received fewer than 25 complaints from Abiquiu, Española, Jemez Springs, Ponderosa and Cuba combined.

“So, we are seeing a huge amount of complaints coming from Los Alamos,” she said.

These complaints primarily address mountain lions, bears and deer. And the biggest issue? People feed these animals food. In just the past 10 days Perraglio said the calls she received dealt with the following:

• A resident feeding deer a bucket of corn;
• Deer being fed hotdogs near the North Mesa ballfields; and
• A mountain lion moving from backyard to backyard before killing a dog.

Perraglio added that she gets calls wondering why is it bad to feed deer and why is it bad for bears to rummage for food in garbage cans.

NMG&F Wildlife Veterinarian Elin Crockett outlined the serious consequences of feeding wildlife, specifically deer.

“There’s plenty of reasons to avoid feeding deer,” she said. “Other wildlife is a little more obvious. We don’t want to be feeding carnivores and allowing them to become aggressive or habituated to people in any way. The main reasons to avoid feeding deer (is) first of all, to discourage them from congregating at these unnatural densities. When we are supplying artificial feeding sites, they will congregate in densities that are really unnatural, that they would never really congregate in out on the landscape and when there are too many deer that are in the same area, using the same feeding site, it creates kind of the prefect breeding ground for disease to spread. So obviously we don’t want to see that.”

She explained these diseases can involve parasites, mange and bacterial infections that are easily spread.

“Another reason to avoid this behavior is when we feed deer or other animals at an artificial site it encourages them to congregate in these human populated areas so we see higher rates of roadkill, much, much higher rates of roadkill. When artificial feeding is put in place we also see deer and other animals depending on humans for vital resources and that can lead to habituation,” Crockett said. “When animals become habituated to humans we see an increase in nuisance deer problems like deer getting things stuck in their antlers or eating things they shouldn’t like ornamental plants in gardens or aggression.”

“…a lot of people think we need to feed them or supply them with food or water during … harsh winter months, and their heart is in the right place, they are trying to do the right thing, but they can actually do more harm than good.”

Crockett explained this encourages the deer to travel further and expend more energy than what they are receiving from the artificial food source.

To sum it up, feeding wildlife, Crockett said, “Just in general is not worth it and it’s not doing the animals any good.”

Perraglio has worked since 2019 to provide education to the community on the consequences of feeding wildlife. She and others have distributed materials, attended the local Bear Festival, etc., it doesn’t appear to be catching on.

“We’re not seeing a change, so it’s time for the next step,” she said.

That next step would be an ordinance prohibiting feeding wildlife. Perraglio provided council with an ordinance passed in Rudioso as an example. Police Chief Dino Sgamebellone spoke during the work session about how Animal Control would handle such an ordinance.

“I don’t think it would be unmanageable … if you present this to the community not only as an ordinance piece but an educational piece,” he said. “I think a lot of people just don’t understand – they think they are doing a good thing.”

Having an ordinance would be a good way to reach people who are not willing to voluntarily comply, Sgambellone added.

The majority on council expressed reluctance to take the next step to create an ordinance. They preferred to educate.

Councilor Randall Ryti wondered if the Pajarito Environmental Education Center’s contract to operate the Los Alamos Nature Center could be modified to address educating the public on the issues of feeding the wildlife.

“I just want to make sure the public understands that we looked at everything we can do in our toolbox before we start doing ordinances to prohibit something like wildlife feeding although you’ve given lots of great information about what the problems are …,” he said.

There were some on council who expressed doubt. Councilor Keith Lepsch said he felt education should be done in parallel with an ordinance.

“I agree education should do the trick but there’s always going to be people who think they know best,” Council Vice Chair Theresa Cull said.

Council concluded to take no action on an ordinance in favor of education – at least for now. The question is, will it work?