OkcPets Magazine July 2023

10 OKC Pets • July / August 2023 Beware! Summer Poses Hazards to Wildlife, Pets, and Humans by Inger Giuffrida, executive director, WildCare Oklahoma | Photos courtesy of WildCare Oklahoma S pring and summer are baby season for songbirds, raptors, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Most birds have hatched and fledged and are living independently. Virginia opossums might be on their second or third litter of babies. And reptiles — turtles, lizards, skinks, and snakes — are hatching from eggs laid by their moms two to three months before. Baby season comes with many hazards for our wildlife neighbors. Most of the threats are the result of human activity. The good news is that because humans create those hazards, they also can mitigate or eliminate them. Here are some of the common hazards to wildlife, the reason they cause problems for wildlife, and ways we can address the hazards so they don’t cause so much harm, injury, and death. Fertilizers, Herbicides, and Insecticides Property owners spend time and money maintaining green lawns in summer. They regularly treat their lawns to maintain a weed-free landscape. Although fertilizers add nutrients to the soil, many of them contain broadleaf herbicides. Ironically, the weeds killed are often beneficial to bees, butterflies, and wildlife, where- as green lawns are food deserts for all wildlife. The lawns so prized by many suburban homeowners offer no benefit to the environment or anything that lives in it. Chemicals remain in the environment doing damage long after their targets have been destroyed, and runoff ends up in ponds, streams, rivers, and lakes, adding unnecessary contaminants to watersheds and polluting our drinking water. Furthermore, insecticides kill grubs and other insects that provide an important food source for songbirds such as northern cardinals, scissor-tailed flycatchers (the Oklahoma state bird), other swallows, warblers, tanagers, orioles, grosbeaks, blue jays, greater roadrunners, and more. Cicadas, which develop underground and mature slowly, are an essential food source for Mississippi kites, which migrate to Oklahoma from central South America to have their young. For many birds, insects are life. Indis- criminately killing insects through lawn care, mist spraying systems, or large-scale spraying ultimately kills bees, butterflies, songbirds, raptors, bats, and mammals such as Virginia opossums, striped skunks, squirrels, raccoons, and armadillos, among others. In addition, most reptiles and am- phibians rely on insects to survive. Let wildlife take care of the pests in your yard. Bats and birds will eat mosquitoes, Virginia opossums will take care of ticks, and armadillos and skunks will feast on grubs. Finally, for migratory birds, having enough insects along the migratory path is critical for their survival during their long, arduous journeys northward in spring and southward in fall. Humans rely on the insects we so readily kill through the application of insecticides. Insecticides and habitat loss are the prime reasons for the decline of bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects. Without pollinators, most of the crops we survive on could not exist. This golden eagle was brought toWildCare and subsequently died. Lead poisoning was suspected.