It's now illegal to feed a quartet of dangerous wild animals in Saskatchewan.

A bill passed last week by the provincial government will attempt to deter people from feeding bears, wolves, cougars, and coyotes.

Travis Williams, a wildlife allocation specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment, said prior to the change made by the province, conservation officers didn't have a suitable option to deal with people feeding dangerous wildlife.

"This amendment came as a result of increased concern around feeding dangerous wildlife in the province," he said. "The ministry believes now that with this amendment in place, it is a positive step towards reducing potential conflicts with dangerous wildlife, so we thought that the timing was right to move forward with this."

While conservation officers will work to educate the public on the new law as their first step, they can now issue warnings and tickets for these types of situations.

"Failing to manage attractants can result in a public safety issue where habituated wildlife can create a hazardous situation to the individual and those around them," he said. "These situations may also result in an animal having to be euthanized, so things like that we want to avoid."

Last year the ministry received around 2,000 calls for service just regarding bears and according to Williams a subset of those calls were about people feeding them.