Many of us enjoy the wildlife we see around our properties. It is tempting to encourage the wildlife of the area to return by feeding. Feeding wildlife is usually inappropriate for a number of reasons.

• Feeding wildlife encourages dependence. It distorts the natural abundance of animals by providing more food than the area naturally can produce. This can affect the balance of biodiversity in local areas. Additionally, whenthe human feeders go away then the animals may starve.
• Feeding results in animals becoming used to people. This can lead to animals losing their fear of humans with tragic results both for people and animals. Examples of this have occurred with Cassowaries where feeding has resulted in Cassowaries aggressively demanding food or venturing close to settlements where they have been killed by dogs.
• Feeding can also create sick animals. The food given to animals is often inappropriate and can cause illness and sometimes death. For example, wallabies fed bread can develop a serious disease of the jaw.
  

If you want to encourage wildlife on or around your property it is best to provide the appropriate natural habitat such as food trees for butterflies and birds, grassy areas for wallabies, or rainforest understorey for bandicoots. We offer some suggestions for how this might be done later in this compendium.