Concerns that popular Halloween decorations could endanger Australian birds, insects and animals has caused angst on social media platforms.
A post online that has been shared in local community forums across Australia has warned that fake spiderwebs are deadly for birds, butterflies and bees.
Please don't use this stuff to decorate! Fake spiderweb decorations kill birds. It's strong enough to snare an owl and takes a terrible toll every October on small birds, including hummingbirds. It's also deadly to monarch butterflies and even bees. pic.twitter.com/PH7Og4vjld
— Kathryn Orr (@kcorr54) October 22, 2022
The spelling “neighbors” and the mention of hummingbirds give away that the message, much like the holiday itself, is an American import.
But fake Halloween spiderwebs are a threat to Australian wildlife as well, according to animal conservation groups.
Sean Dooley, the national public affairs manager at Birdlife Australia, says the peak organisation for native birdlife is concerned about the issue.
Dooley says it was raised last year, with at least one anecdotal report of a bird getting entangled in Halloween decorations, but the evidence that it is occurring right across Australia is “thin”.
Dooley says fine netting is always problematic but particularly when draped over bushes it could increase the risk of birds becoming entangled.
“There’s far less of a risk of entanglement or interference when it’s on fences and the areas that birds aren’t normally feeding in,” he says.
“But if it’s among the branches and outer leaves of trees and bushes, then that drastically would increase the possibility that birds will be impacted by it.”
Fake spiderwebs could pose a risk to Australian birds still found in suburban areas, such as smaller honeyeaters, thornbills or silvereyes, which feed in foliage.
Dooley says he is unsure whether birds like owls could be ensnared, as the online posts suggest, but if the material was as strong as fishing line and nets, coastal birds as big as pelicans would be unable to break free.
Dooley says he is also concerned that it is nesting season in Australia and that Halloween material might look attractive to birds as a nest liner.
“Because it’s not a natural fibre … they’re hard to break and so they can entangle nestlings. I’ve seen it myself, a nestling bird die because it got entangled in some sort of artificial thread wrapped around his leg … it was quite gruesome, it had fallen out of the nest that was just hanging by its leg and died there.”
Dooley says the wording of the message – that the fake spiderweb kills birds – “sounds a bit extreme”. He says birds are at risk of entanglement, and they can die when entangled. However, “it’s important to note that in order of threats to birds, this issue is way down the list behind things like habitat clearance or feral predators, in terms of causes of bird deaths.”
“But it is something that could easily be avoided.”
“Even though a lot of small bush birds are slowly disappearing from suburban areas, where there’s still habitat available small bush birds like silvereyes, fairy wrens, thornbills and the small honey eaters still persist in urban spaces and could be at risk.”
It’s nearly the Australians Getting Mad About Halloween Festive Season
— The Bureau Of Airships (@jonkudelka) October 20, 2022
Prof Richard Kingsford, the director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of New South Wales, says there is no shortage of things we have introduced into the environment that could cause problems.
Kingsford estimates insects would be more vulnerable than birds as they would not be able to untangle themselves.
But he says, unlike a real spiderweb where they would get stuck and eaten, there would be a chance for them to escape.
“It’s really going to be a case of whether or not they get tangled up in the threads and manage to get away. And even if they did get away, did they get damaged in the process?”
“I think we should always think about the indirect consequences of what we do.”
Kingsford says the call from the sharing of these messages should be to find evidence about “whether it’s a real problem or not, and how big a problem is it?”
