Feeding wildlife is practised by millions of people but carries genuine welfare risks alongside the benefits, requiring evidence-based guidance to be beneficial rather than harmful.
Wildlife feeding is welfare-positive when done correctly and harmful when done incorrectly — the difference matters because millions of well-intentioned people feed wildlife daily. Bread fed to ducks and swans provides calories but lacks the nutritional complexity waterfowl need; wildlife fed year-round at supplementary stations may lose the foraging skills needed to survive without them; wildlife fed near roads learn to associate human activity with food reward, increasing traffic mortality. Species-appropriate food, seasonal restriction, hygiene, and gradual reduction of feeding at season end are the welfare-positive practices that transform a good intention into genuine benefit.