Ask Lemmy

My wife and have extensive flower beds on our property. My very first job as a teenager was in a nursery/garden center and did a lot of landscaping and landscaping design back then. So we have something flowering through out the entire growing season for the pollinators.

Here is one of the more interesting pollinators we have:

Do my bird feeders count? Does my garden built with biodiversity and creating small pockets for criters and bugs count?

Not using pesticides and trying to use organic products to manage my gardens.

If those count, then 100% daily through active and passive means.

Our yard has bunnies, wild birds, assorted pollinators, squirrels and even an opossum living under our bay window. All of this on 1/2 acre in the suburbs. Planting perrenials is fun.

I feed anything I come across. I helped a tortoise into the trees a few days ago. Second time I've seen him. We have frogs lately after it rains. Cute little guys. I love animals and wish I encountered more every day.

I started working at a wild animal rehab this year. I've fed a few hundred squirrels, dozens of song birds, some really cool raptors, and a good handful of mammals.

I consider my time with them positive, but they really don't want much to do with us. I just released an owl this weekend and it bit me multiple times as I was trying to let it go. That's the attitude it takes for it to survive, so getting a positive attitude back is typically not an outcome I should, or realistically want to see.

The person being hostile in this thread is going pretty extreme. We shouldn't be touching or feeding animals directly, but many do need indirect human presence to survive. They evolved with us to an extent, and they take advantage of our food storage and waste and some of the molding of the environment that we do by creating fields and farmland.

Most animal injuries I see are from cars, pets, manmade structures, and cutting down trees animals live in. What people are feeding the birds is likely a very small portion of their diet, as they eat pretty constantly. Keep your bird and squirrel stations clean and provide shelter from predators and you likely aren't hurting anything in the grand scheme of things. A loose dog or cat is way worse IMO.

I was on a walk and saw a beetle on its back. I turned the beetle around so that it could carry on.

We have a parking garage with a few windows in its corners (fucking incompetent design) and birds will often get confused / trapped by the windows.

I will ALWAYS stop and help get them out but sliding a folder / book under them and moving them to an opening.

What’s interesting is that the birds always allow me to help. Perhaps it’s because they’re just exhausted, or perhaps they really understand that I’m trying to help them. I do not know.

Not much, there arent many wild animals around on my typical day.

I have a spider in the corner of my bathroom that I leave alone.

I watch squirrels in the front yard, they need nothing from me.

The front yard is riddled with moles and dying grass. I live in a condo that is responsible for yard care and they aren't doing much about the moles. I don't especially like large, green grass yards so I don't care if they're letting the moles destroy it all. Letting them do their thing.

Does this count? My wife feeding the Kudu. They get a bucket or so a day of pellets and a bale or two, especially in winter. We have kudu, impala, zebra, etc (even the odd giraffe) passing by most days. And bananas and peanut butter for the bush babies at night.

I walk my dog 4km every morning and scare the shit out of about 40 bunnies, 1 or 2 skunks, occasionally a fox or 2, and perhaps once a year we get scared shitless by a bear.

Since I don't go out of my way to do so, the correct answer is, "never."

In order of what I believe has the most impact to least impact.

Being vegan. Less farmland utilization and better for the environment.

Using an ebike for travel. Environment and less roadkill.

Being mindful of my overall consumption and spending.

Allowing spiders free reign in my house.

I don't interact with many wild animals on the average day, but I do go to great lengths to catch and release bugs and such when killing them would be much easier.

I always walk past pigeons with some extra distance to make them feel safe. Or any animal, it's just that I encounter pigeons the most.

I rescued a bird that was unable to fly and I would do so again. But now I know that my local shelter will accept them and I will not attempt to foster them myself again.

**Please don't just grab wild birds (or any animal for that matter) off the street but take some time to observe them first. If they struggle to fly/walk, look like they're under weight, cold or have visible injuries, then catching them is usually warranted.

I feed a specific stray cat a can of wet cat food every day when he comes outside my house, and keep a water container filled for him in the summer.

I try to interact with other stray cats when walking around too.

My dad likes to feed wild racoons and I help him with that. He puts some dog food and a couple other things out for them and they come up every night to get some and hang out for a bit before returning home

We feed three homeless cats that stop by when they get hungry. My preference with houseflies is to open the door, all these flies want is to leave.

On average I don't really need to go far out my way, because it's mostly insects or spiders. I just catch the bees and release them outside, not far of their hive, don't use something because a spider live here or help some thing trapped somewhere stupid.

One day my partner and I did 30km for an injured bat, because there was nobody closer who could take and heal her. I saw the birds the organization took in (for healing/helping) the same day, and you don't often have a chance to see a baby owl in real life!

😅😂😅🤣 @11111one11111 enters the comments and behaves like an AI gone rogue

Today I shot two Australian Magpies that were hassling the native Tui - helping the tui, not so much the invasive magpie

Does that count?

Varies wildly for me but usually whenever the opportunity presents itself, although it mostly ends up being cats. I always have cat food and water outside near my back door for strays. Two days ago I brought a can of wet food for a feral momma and her kittens on the other end of town. (Trying to make friends with mom, but not much luck so far.) Was leaving veggies out for a deer that was living in my backyard this spring until she moved on. Occasionally put stuff out for the birds when I can. I also don't mow certain sections of my yard and my daughter's yard much because the bees love the clover that grows in those spots.

Specifically avoiding running into the wildlife when driving, mostly to protect the car but I suppose it does help the wildlife

around 2 million people live here, and the only wild animal i have encountered in the recent years are my gipsy neighbours.

"Each day"? Like on average? Trending towards 0, I suppose.

I did help a bug out the window recently, does that count?

There's a crow I give peanuts to every morning on my way to work.

I avoid killing spiders? I live in the city, there aren't many wild animals here. Back when I lived in Marseille, the only ones were dirty rats and I really have close to zero empathy for them, I'm sorry.

I carry a granola bar on my physical therapy bike rides to give to any wild feral humans I encounter. There are a lot. Midway through my ride crosses the point where a charity usual does a dinner handout in the evenings. If they miss a day, there are a bunch of people searching through the trash cans and stuff. So I try to have something to hand them.

With my disability over the last 12 years, I'm vulnerable to issues on the bike if I have problems or something breaks. So I'm super prepared and help people all the time in general.

When there is wildlife around I'll stop and flag anyone down to make sure the animal is fine or doesn't hurt anyone, like with snakes. I'm also obnoxious on a bike and do not hesitate to call out to people or animals when I pass them, so I rarely hit anything. I'm still strong enough to bunny hop on a bike to miss stuff like large snakes on the bike trail, but that risks injury to my neck and back.