CPW: Don’t leave your pumpkins out for wildlife
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Now that Halloween has passed, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is reminding Coloradans to dispose of their pumpkins properly and not leave them out for wildlife to eat.
Leaving pumpkins out for wildlife might seem harmless, but it could lead to unintended consequences. Intentionally feeding wildlife in Colorado is also illegal.
According to CPW, deer feeding on pumpkins can attract predators like mountain lions to residential areas. The pumpkins can also attract bears to residential areas, increasing the chance of human-bear conflicts.
Feeding wildlife can also habituate those animals to human forces and cause them to congregate. With animals like deer, in particular, this can lead to the spread of disease.
"We want our wildlife to be sustained by the resources that naturally occur in their habitat," said CPW Wildlife Pathologist Karen Fox. “Our policy is definitely to not provide supplemental food to big game in any form.”
As Halloween also coincides with many hunting seasons in Colorado, CPW asks that people do not dump their pumpkins on public land either.
"We do see pumpkins tossed out in the forest. Please don’t do that," said CPW Assistant Area Wildlife Manager Steve McClung. "It can be viewed as baiting."
Many communities offer pumpkin disposal sites, and it is common for ranchers and farmers to take pumpkins to feed to domestic livestock.
