Dogs Pose a Growing Threat to Raptor Food at Greenbank Farm
By Linda Rhodes, PhD
The Greenbank Farm off-leash dog park includes large expanses of open fields that were most recently a loganberry farm. Today, those open fields are home to small rodents, such as field mice, shrews, and underground-living voles, as well as the eastern cottontail. These small mammals are a food source for hawks, harriers, falcons, owls, and even herons that live nearby.
While pet dogs and wildlife have co-existed for many years at Greenbank Farm, there has been a noticeable increase in dogs digging up, pursuing, and killing small mammals over the past year. Sadly, these dead small animals are left to rot in winter or dry out in summer, wasting a valuable food source for raptors. Furthermore, the excavated dirt from digging appears to attract more dogs to explore and dig, increasing the impact and causing some field areas to look like small-scale versions of no-man’s land.
Example of holes that dogs have dug at Greenbank Farms in their pursuit of small mammals, wasting a valuable food source for raptors.
Photo by Vernon Brisley
Two dogs hunting underground mammals at the Greenbank Farm.
Photo by Vernon Brisley
What can we do?
Digging and chasing small animals is a natural behavior for many dog breeds, so educating the human owners is necessary to reduce this threat to raptor food. If you witness this behavior by dogs and can identify the owners, politely explain the value of the small mammals to the wildlife that also live around Greenbank Farm. Many people are simply unaware of natural food webs, so don’t expect everyone to be receptive to this information. But you have planted a meme* for dog owners to contemplate, and maybe helped to spread awareness (and restraint) in the future.
Did you know?
Voles can display empathy for each other. This is a behavior usually associated with humans, large-brained mammals, and some big birds. Read more in this abstract published in Science, “Oxytocin-dependent consolation behavior in rodents,” January 22, 2016.
A meme (/miːm/; MEEM) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.
