INTRODUCTION:
YouTube attracts over 2 billion logged-in users per month amounting to
nearly one third of internet traffic (YouTube 2021a). This video sharing
platform has exploded in popularity since its founding in 2005, with a
diverse range of digital content and creators. Over 70% of watch-time
comes from mobile devices, with the platform currently available in 80
languages (YouTube 2021a). Over 1 billion hours of videos are watched
daily (YouTube 2015). YouTube is popular with younger adults, with the
18-34 age group making up the majority of active profiles, and users are
more likely to have children than non-users (Google 2021b). With this
vast reach in mind, YouTube represents an important pathway for
highlighting wildlife and conservation science to a broad audience.
However, use of social media data by much of the scientific community
remains limited (Toivonen et al. 2019) especially with regards to
conservation science (Wu et al. 2018).
Traditional research outputs including both publications and
presentations are necessary for the advancement of academic science.
Social media helps to deliver scientific content to a general audience,
to those not able to participate in a conference setting, and to those
without access to embargoed research. Social media can also deliver
content in a more understandable (and enjoyable) way to the public, with
links back to the original research. Underserved communities at a global
level can benefit from the free YouTube content, providing education and
excitement to anyone with internet access. Many interesting publications
can be enhanced through adventurous explorations into the topic via
YouTube. An example of this is algogenic insect stings (Schmidt et al.
1983) which are often popular with a general audience (Schmidt 2020).
Publications detailing the personal experience of a given venom are
limited; adding the human element and direct visuals helps to bring this
research to life and connects digital content with a vast and diverse
audience. Examination of the types of ecological stories and visuals
that are popular on YouTube provides conservation practitioners and
policy makers an understanding of what interests a general audience and
offers inspiration for their future endeavors. Social media data has
been suggested to be valuable in a variety of fields (Di Minin et al.
2015) with data of particular use to conservation science efforts
(Otsuka and Yamakoshi 2020).
Many science themed channels exist on the YouTube platform (Huang and
Grant 2020), with some obtaining a viral reach. One way a large audience
size is achieved is by building a follower base who view content as it
is produced, irrespective of topic. Here we report on the success of a
single YouTube channel “BraveWilderness” with its animal-centric
content receiving over 4 billion views. These demographics are comprised
of a large base of interested viewers, many of whom would not search
directly for a given topic but enjoy, and benefit from, the content.
BraveWilderness is a YouTube channel that was created in 2014 with the
main focus of showing interesting wildlife in its natural habitat. The
hosts find various creatures and highlight their morphology and
adaptations in engaging short videos which are uploaded to the platform.
Although rarely didactically instructional, BraveWilderness video
content tells a multilayered story, often with the goal of answering
questions in life science fields. Special attention is given to entering
extremes of nature and finding interesting and misunderstood wildlife,
many of which are underrepresented in conservation efforts. Although not
all BraveWilderness videos are strictly conservation themed, the content
created tells a compelling story and highlights fascinating wildlife,
bringing awareness of science, nature and conservation subjects to a
large audience. By highlighting such biodiversity, it is clear that the
more people that are reached, the greater chance of them caring, which
is how conservation ultimately succeeds. As social media becomes an
increasingly powerful tool, academics and conservation practitioners can
benefit from examining successful outreach efforts, and directly
participating in web-based outreach activities.