Firework fun - yet not for the wildlife and pets

 

Bonfire Night: It's always nice to see the bright colours in the cold night's sky, but what about the poor wildlife and pets? 

All great fun at the party yet the noise can have devastating effects on terrified animals. 

Hostile noise with deafening bangs from fireworks, which may be irregular remain outside an animal’s control. With fireworks this can be exceptionally stressful. Being unpredictable, as well as sporadic it makes it unlikely that animals will adjust to intermittent firework noise. 

Confusion and anxiety from fireworks can cause wild birds to crash into buildings or fly towards the sea and roads, to escape the loud noise. 

Pyrotechnics also increase panic-stricken animals’ heart rates. Large skeins of geese may get caught in explosions, making them shocked and disorientated. 

 A study, published in the journal Conservation Physiology found that the heart rate of geese increases by 96% when they are exposed to firework displays. The study implicated 20 wild greylag geese (Anser anser) fitted with temporary transmitters to record their heart rate and body temperature, which are measures of physiological stress.

The research established that the average heart rate increased from 63 to 124 beats per minute, and their average body temperature increased by 3%, from 38C to 39C. 

The sense of hearing in many animals is much more sensitive than it is in humans Thus, explosions from fireworks are not only more disturbing to them, they can damage their hearing more severely too. 

Fireworks can discharge sounds of almost to 190 decibels (110 to 115 decibels above the range of 75 to 80 decibels where the damage to the human ear begins). Fireworks create a higher noise level than firecrackers, gunshots (140 decibels), and some jet planes (100 decibels).

loud unfamiliar sounds can cause irrational fear in numerous animals, increasing panic reactions to other loud noises in the future. 

Dogs are capable of hearing up to 60,000hz, though humans can’t hear anything above 20,000hz, which is only a third of the capacity of dogs. 

This greater auditory awareness of dogs is one of the reasons the sound of fireworks can be so damaging to them. They may show signs of tremendous anxiety as they are unable to evade from the sound. Dogs may freeze up or suffer paralysis and make desperate attempts to escape and hide with tremors, as they seek shelter from the noise.  

Some terrified pets may experience tachycardia, intense vocalizations and salivation.  They may also have uncontrolled defecation, increased activity, hyper alertness, excessive urination, plus gastrointestinal turmoil. 

The misery distress and harm that loud fireworks parties create however goes wholly unnoticed by the fun - loving throng.