Well-intentioned people want to get closer to wildlife and in many cases, apparently harmless behaviors such as feeding monkeys fruit in a zoo or throwing food waste like banana peels in the forest during a hike do succeed, according to wildlife ecologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant. The habit appears as innocent since a peel is “natural”. The bad thing is that it does not dissipate on the time of anyone and it may begin to alter what animals have been used to expect of people.
Speed is the most enduring stereotype. With a managed compost, food scraps will decay faster as moisture, microbes and constant mixing of the material keep the decomposition process going. On a shoulder or a sun-baked trail, there are the ingredients of a good roadside and all are lacking: uniform moisture, life of the soil, and good contact with soil. According to the caution given by Glacier national park, it may take years before certain fruit products become decomposed depending on the location of landing. A peel which rests on rock or asphalt, or compacted earth, may be long enough to be part of the landscape and part of the life of an animal.
Lauren Click, the executive director of Let’s Go Compost, has cited the functional factors that might have led to the common confusion about the term biodegradable outside: poor access to water, direct sunlight, hardened or polluted soil, and a lack of microbes can slow down decomposition. That is, a peel will not act as under the conditions of kitchen-scrap. It is able to remain months, and often much longer, just because it is not able to get the environmental condition that it requires to decay. That remains an issue since it acts as a baited sign post.
Feeding patterns change as soon as wildlife starts to interrelate people and trails with easily available calories. Wynn-Grant cautions, as soon as they start relating humans to food that is readily available, these instincts can weaken and change their usually foraging behavior. Even a peel tossed once will add to a pattern should the shortcut be used by many hikers, bikers and motorists over the years. Animals seen more often around human beings also are seen more often around roads, parking areas, campgrounds, and picnic sites, in which their survival is tied to remaining alert and keeping a distance.
It is not only the animal that may eat something strange. Glacier National Park has also highlighted how the wildlife that is attracted by roadside food waste are at risk of traffic fatality, citing that the longer they spend around roads the more likely they are to be hit by traffic. The same distance may increase the possibility of the tense interaction with people, particularly when animals are not afraid of coming closer to obtain food.
A fruit scrap is still not “wild food” even when it is edible. Human preferences and shipping durability are the factors on which bananas, apples, and oranges are grown, rather than on wild diets. As Wynn-Grant observes, our fruits and vegetables are grown to please human tastes, and the proportions of sugar and salt are completely alien to the body of wildlife. In certain animals, such foods may lead to digestive distress and dietary imbalance especially where natural seasonal foods are substituted by ad hoc human leftovers.
Another ecological problem that is less obvious is seeds. Fruits, when discarded in areas where that plant does not form part of the local system, may sprout and become non-native plants. Glacier National Park has warned against the use of fruits and vegetables seeds leading to non-native plants which will crowd out native plants in the long run.
Lastly, organic litter does not cease to be litter in the eyes of other individuals. The presence of one peel on a switchback or next to a trail head can taint the sense of purity that most visitors go seek and it indicates that disposing leftover stuff is the order of the day and will make it difficult to clean up for everybody.
The alternative that is clean is also not complicated: pack it out. Peels, cores, and shells are stored in a small, sealable bag (or a special container) until they can be composted or disposed of in the most appropriate way possible. The policy is clear and similar throughout the snacks: carry it in, carry it out.
