Great Horned Owl - The problem with baiting.

My post yesterday was about photographing owls and it hit a nerve with some people. The text below is an excerpt from that blog.

"People feed birds at local feeding stations, hummingbirds take sugar from feeders, and many a duck and pigeon have benefitted from the hand of man. Feeding owls falls into the same category ...."

It seems that "feeding owls" for the purposes of obtaining photographs is called baiting. I read the comments made by a number of contributors and have changed my mind on the subject. Baiting is a bad practice with negative consequences for the birds. Research I have done on the process has turned up the following points.

• All vertebrate species in BC are protected as part of the wildlife act. Of those species, some are considered at risk or endangered. In BC, there are 5 raptors on that list which you can find at this website. Endangered organisms have another whole level of protection that involves fines and imprisonment.


• Baiting raptors is a form of harassment. One definition of harassment regarding these birds is "an intentional or negligent act or omission that disrupts a bird's normal behavioral patterns" (click here to see reference). Baiting certainly will attract birds but carries with it a variety of risks for the involved species. One of those risks involves habituation to humans. The closer they are to humans the greater the danger they are in; cars, guns, stupid people (they do exist - I saw someone throwing rocks at geese and one got hit in the head), and so on.


• Training raptors to depend on people for food weakens their own hunting skills and puts them at risk for starvation when the food runs out (for reference, click here).


• Approaching a raptor will increase its stress load. Behaviours such as stretching, bobbing, and crouching to launch are all signs of stressing a bird out. A single such act is fairly insignificant but, over time, many such acts are likely to affect the bird's behaviour and ability to sustain itself (click here for reference - good video).


• Young birds depend on their parents for survival and to help them develop the necessary skills to survive. Baiting raptors may cause these juveniles to become dependent upon humans and ignore the important lessons that the adults have in mind for them (click here for reference).

I read of a report of a single great gray owl being photographed by a group of photographers. In order to capture desired photos of the subject, they would throw mice out to it. The crowd, equipped with cameras sporting long lenses, was all about getting that amazing shot without considering the effect they would have on the owl both short and long-term. If you have ever encountered a scene where a multitude of camera-happy shooters was doing everything they could to get that shot, you know what I mean. I wrote about my first experience with such a thing in an earlier blog (click here). I wrote another blog on birding and capitalism shortly after that underscoring the idea that some people do this for profit and recognition.

I challenge the moderators of any pages, sites, or publications to ban the exhibition of photographs that were taken through the practice of baiting. People bait to get good pictures which are validated because they get paid, published, and praised for capturing such imagery. And yet few think about the plight of the creatures photographed. How many of them are dead afterward from starvation, from being hit by a car, or from being shot or hit by a flying rock? Those are the posts we don't see.

Thanks for reading.     Ericspix     Eric Svendsen