Content Creation vs Conservation: The Effects of Social Media on Wildlife. Part 1

While I am focusing on African animals here, this blog post applies to every continent.

In today's world of consuming digital content, I’m sure you’ve all seen photos of animals that make you think ‘wow, how did they get that?!’ In many cases, the final result is made from a combination of poor guiding ethics, a pressure to please guests, incentives for extra money and a disregard of an animal’s personal space.

I started writing this article in 2023 and since then there’s been a few examples posted online recently that have finally pushed me to press publish.

From seeing videos of guests raising their hands and clicking their fingers to get an animal to look at them, reaching down and touching a lion who was resting beside the vehicle, to being far too close and invading an animals space to get a shot that amasses over 1 million likes, social media and the gratification of likes is pushing ‘photographers’ / content creators to invade on wildlife just to get the shot.

--As I do final checks on 8th July, this past couple of weeks alone have, some terrible guiding ethics have been exposed, but perfect examples on how not to behave around wildlife.--

The majority of people go on safari for the pure love of wildlife, and they will continue to return as much as they can. They are there to soak in the sights and smells and simply immerse themselves in the experience. Social media has made safaris and wildlife trips more appealing to people, and we cannot let those with influence create false expectations, encourage poor behaviour, nor pretend that unethical behaviour is accepted.

Many private guides and lodges use social media for marketing their trips, however as time goes on, it seems to be more and more about them, rather than the animals… it's all getting a bit too egotistical with the trend of influencers. Many viewers of these videos are not educated enough about the do's and don't's when viewing wildlife, and that is what these creators are hoping for: the likes, the 'wows', the hope that this video is going to make them a lot of money, either through bookings, or from the platforms they are posting on.

They say money is the root of evil, and for those of us in the wildlife world, we know all too well what money is doing to the wildlife that is being depleted for it. And money and ego are big players in these ‘modern’ issues..

The wildlife tourism industry generates great amounts of revenue, provides jobs for locals and in most places, ensures wildlife and their environments are preserved. A 5 day stay in a lodge will run you into the thousands, with luxury accommodation, carefully presented meals and expertly guided drives. However, in some places, guides themselves aren’t always too well paid and of course the incentive to make more money is always attractive. Too often guides push the boundaries of the ethics to make guests, or the private guides guests are with, happy: perhaps they’ve been promised a great tip, ‘if you can get us 5 meters closer’.

Private guides utilise their influence, marketing skills and following to get bookings - which of course are needed. However, problems arise when they appear to promote getting out of the vehicle, blocking routes of animals and encouraging people to push boundaries with wildlife - which is then shared by pages with thousands more followers. This can disillusion viewers with the promise that they’ll be able to experience this for themselves and normalising poor practices so they too can get that viral image or footage.

On the 7th July, a video from an ‘ultra -luxury’ travel agency was shared in the community. This travel agency posted a video of a man with a camera sat on the ground with a wild dog tugging at his shoes. No attempt was made to get the dog to back off. If this was another species, there is no way that would have been allowed to take place. Pressurised by people’s negative comments about the encounter, it was soon removed- success! However some of the comments on there were disappointing and showed just how much content creation is damaging an industry which should be promoting the conservation of the animals, not what we can get out of the experience.

BOUNDARIES

Most animals you will view while on safari are what we call ‘habituated’. This means that over time, people have slowly worked with the animals to feel comfortable in the presence of the vehicles. If starting from scratch, this can take a long time, and some might never be comfortable, they are after all, animals with their own personalities and the natural instinct to avoid people is there to keep them safe. Habituation, however, does not mean the animals are tame. They just accept that you’re there. Unfortunately, with the rise of videos showing close encounters with animals, it may provide a different story. View the same animal on foot and you’re likely to get a different reaction altogether and the animal will probably run off. Not only is habituation important for research, but reserves would not be able to function - and therefore protect - without animals being able to be seen. Ideally, we want to have an animal completely ignore our presence and to continue what it is doing when viewing from a vehicle.

Over-habituation happens when an animal is not shown boundaries on how close to the vehicle or lodge they can get.

Leopards are usually on the top of safari goers lists, their elusive nature and striking pattern seems to drive people crazy. How amazing would it be if you had leopards strolling around the lodge you're staying at? You walk out of your room to a leopard sitting less than 10m from you. Wow.  Many places and companies use this as a marketing tool to entice guests to stay with them, often promoted by private guides with large followings. These lodges are usually unfenced, so a variety of animals will pass through, and antelopes usually like to hang around them knowing that the presence of people will usually equal safety from predators... Until the predators are given no boundaries. No deterrence about where they can wander. Lodges have people on foot. Lodges have food. How soon does the leopard start to lose that fear altogether and realise there’s some easier ways to find food here. Not only does this put guests at risk, it’s a life threatening situation for a leopard. More often than not, the leopard will be blamed should it act upon its instincts and potentially have its life ended because the natural fear of humans has been lost.

This then causes ‘human-wildlife’ conflict.

Not habituating animals too much is widely accepted when it comes to animals such as baboons, monkeys and honey badgers. These animals will raid your bins, go through your belongings and once the baboons know they can access easy food, will intimidate you, and, with canine teeth larger than a lions, that's not a fight you want to get into. There's always a rule to not feed such species and to try and scare them off should they come too close near human areas. So, should there not be the same thing with leopards? Should we be encouraging and celebrating that they come into human areas? Just because we're not actively feeding them, some places are not doing anything to discourage the behaviour either, so we might as well be!

Habituation starts young and animals must be given boundaries. Young animals, especially cats, elephants and hyenas are going to be curious about your vehicle and may start to approach it. This may seem cute, but before they get close to touching it, they need to be deterred. They need to know they’re not allowed to touch the vehicle. If they are not shown this, you’re going to end up with cats jumping into the vehicle, and hyenas trying to take your shoes off your feet. Oh, but think about what a popular video it would make...

Keeping boundaries with animals not only keeps you safe, it keeps the animals safe. It does not take much to undo the habituation process and make an animal start to think negatively about our presence, possibly causing it to act defensively and adding extra stress to their lives.

Because animals who aren't bothered about our presence are easier to approach, this does not mean we should be pushing it and entering their space...

A troop of baboons use the trees around camp to roost in at night, however they are given boundaries and are still very wary of humans. This one was very suspicious of me watching it.

GIVE THEM SPACE

An animal will let you know when you are too close. Ignore these warnings, and you could create a situation where the animal is forced to react and then be deemed to be attacking you. Animals do not want conflict.

We should not be driving 5 meters towards mating lions, and being surprised that you’re being snarled at. There was a photo shared not so long ago where it was evident this had happened. A wide angle lens combined with a low angle, with a male lion looking as though it was telling the photographer to back off. This shot was clearly planned. Yes, it is great to get creative and use different angles and lenses but there is a time and a place. Purposely antagonising a lion to get a shot is not the right thing to do. However the photographer got what he wanted: a cool shot, lots of likes and compliments and onto the next one.

All animals have a comfort zone around them and it is up to them to close that zone. We call it a 'personal bubble' and we all have them. We're often taught to give elephants, in particular cows with calves and bulls in musth, more space than usual. These animals are going to be more emotional and their personal bubble will be wider. Reading body language of such animals will let you know how comfortable they are. If they're showing that they're uncomfortable, back off and give them space. If an animal has warned you, and you continue to push, it's going to be a potentially bad outcome, and it will not be the animals fault.

Multiple vehicle sightings can also pose a problem. When at a sighting, both humans and animals should have a clear escape route. When multiple cars are crowding round at say, a lion hunt, all vying for the best view, the area in which the animals have an escape route is reduced. This is unfair to the buffalo, as the chance at evading the lions has been hindered. On the flip side, crowding round a sighting may also prevent an animal from getting a meal having to navigate all the cars, who may also be moving trying to get a better look.

When an animal deliberately moves away from the area you’re viewing it from into a thick, hard to access area, it is usually done with the ‘interaction’ and wants to go and do its thing.

Animals need to hide. Whether they’re a prey species or a predator. If off-roading is allowed, this is usually ignored because we are able to follow them and we’ve seen where they go. Sightings may have 3 vehicles or maybe 15 all following this animal as it tries to navigate a plan, not allowing it to move off when it needs, to hide and slink away.

If you ever feel uncomfortable at the proximity you're viewing an animal, be sure to let your guide know. If it is the guide that is the problem, talk to their manager or leave a complaint.

Give plenty of space when following an animal down the road. We slowly followed this cheetah in the early morning, you can see he is aware of us, however should he have fully looked round, perhaps stopping and looking, allowing more space would be beneficial.

There was a video shared of a herd of buffalo in the road at night. Being diurnal yourself, you know how hard it is to see things at night with a light shining you in the face. The buffalo were looking straight at the car headlights when a leopard approaches. It is quite clear the buffalo have not seen this leopard and it is able to take advantage and grabs a calf. Had the headlights been turned off when they leopard came into view, the calf might have stood a chance. Yes, it's an impressive sighting, (any hunt is) but, would it have been successful had humans not 'interfered'? Once again, the comments were mainly praising it, with some being smart enough to know what had happened.

I’m quite happy in my little corner trying to do right by wildlife, forgoing a shot if needed. I am not someone who is out to make money from it. I’m not a ‘popular’ photographer. I enjoy photography for the moments it enables me to have with wildlife. And I absolutely love sharing stories and photos with others, hoping to inspire them to get excited about nature too. Even if I don’t have influence, hopefully I can educate and raise awareness, and give support to those who have a larger voice than I.

But for those with influence and a large following, surely they should be a bit more responsible? They have the platform to be the voice wildlife needs, not to take advantage of it. They are aware they are doing wrong. And if they’re not aware, perhaps a bit of education is needed, or, perhaps they are aware and they know it will get a reaction, therefore traction, therefore more views and everything that comes with that.

Pages with thousands - if not millions- of followers need to be careful on the content they're reposting, and viewers need to be aware of what happened for that viral reel or photo.

Should we be flying drones low down to wildlife clearly chasing them? Should we be allowing potentially dangerous animals to make physical contact with the vehicle? Should we be having races with animals for a video? No. But for some content creators, the likes, money and ego boost overpower the ethics.

We are just observers in their lives. Whatever we witness, there's probably 22 hours of life that we don't get to see so why would you want to have a negative impact during that special glimpse you're getting?

Once upon a time, most people working in the bush were all about sharing these animals personally with their guests, inspiring them to care and conserve, and now in this ever changing world of constant competition of content, it seems with some people, the animals are being forgotten, and it’s more about what they are able to gain from pushing boundaries: how many views they can amass, how cool they look getting close to an animal, how many clients they may get enquiring after posting something.

For me, the best part about photographing and spending time with wildlife is when they don't know you're there, or they are comfortable enough with you that they don't alter their behaviour in any way due to your presence.

The more pressure to call out poor guides, influencers and companies for promoting unethical behaviour the better. We need to rewind a good few years before everything was for the possible ego boost or monetary reward. We need to remember what the very basic rules of viewing wildlife are, and not to encourage people to 'try this' when they are out there.

I’m aware this is a long post. It’s taken 2 years of going back and forth, and I don’t feel like it is finished yet. However, I will do a part two which will include how you can ensure you have an ethical wildlife encounter and get guilt free images.

I’d love to know your thoughts below. Let’s do better and respect the wildlife we are viewing.