Should we intervene to help wildlife

[Catherine]

I think Koori is in a special category. He is not exactly wildlife in many ways. Koori is your neighbourhood crow who counts on you when needed. You have a personal bond.

I hear you about bird feeders. If you are putting out food it needs to be the right food and it needs to be consistent. The birds count on being fed in the winter. During a bad storm I made sure I got food out for them even though it was difficult. From the numbers of birds in my yard, other feeders must have been empty. That was an exceptional situation, but people who suddenly stop feeding the birds can put them at risk. It is hard to find an alternate food source in the middle of winter.

Rescuing the baby turtles really does help. Teams of trained people watch nests. After a hurricane they rescued babies that had washed ashore and got them back out to sea. What doesn't help is untrained, well meaning people who see a nest of tortoises hatching in the sand and thinking that they are sea turtles, gather them up and dump them  in the water.
They all die because they cannot swim.

We need to help wildlife, but we need to know what we are doing. It is more useful to support  a local wildlife group or to work with a group that knows what needs to be done. Of course planting things that help animals naturally is always in order. It is a matter of providing what should be there in the first place.