Wildlife debate way off mark

Social media debates about conservation fail to discuss the key issues, and focus on minor threats or things that present no threat to conservation at all.

These are the findings of scientists who scrutinised Twitter posts to see whether users were engaging with the big challenges to species survival.

The Australian and

British teams used tweets about elephants to examine how conservation challenges were discussed. They found that overwhelmingly they missed the point and failed to mention the key threats.

The most severe threat to wild elephants is habitat loss, with human-elephant conflict and poaching the next most important. However, the study found: “Twitter analysis revealed these major threats were infrequently discussed, with habitat loss being the most infrequently discussed.”

Researchers found tourist elephant rides and trophy hunting dominated discussions, neither of which threaten wild populations.

Social media debate fails to focus on key conservation issues, according to research