The birds will go elsewhere or resort to feeding on what nature intended in the first place. However, cut off the supply of easy pickings a black bear has become accustomed to finding at a certain location and you may have to deal with several hundred pounds of animal intent on dealing with a very large appetite. While artificial feeding of any wildlife can lead to problems, bears quite often top the category. Several serious incidents involving bears in conflicts with people have taken place this summer, many of them in the northeastern section of the state. Most of these incidents involved bears in or near areas where food sources served as attractants.
People feed wildlife for many reasons.
Food sources are used to lure birds and animals into close proximity so as to be easily observed or photographed. In some cases food sources are used as bait to attract an animal into a kill zone. In the first situation, artificial feeding would appear to have no adverse impact on the animal, but in the long run, it does. When food sources are used as bait, the impact on the animal is deadly and the act is illegal. Conflicts with the intentional feeding of wildlife also involve deer, elk and Canada geese.