Birds that are more commonly encountered in the wild attract higher public interest online

Abstract

Large body size, the defining characteristic of "charismatic megafauna," is often viewed as the most significant correlate of higher public interest in species. However, common, local species (many of which are not large) can also generate public interest. We explored the relative importance of body size versus local occurrence in patterns of online interest in birds using a large sample of digital human-wildlife interactions (367 million Wikipedia pageviews) that included more than 10,000 bird species and a range of cultural and geographic contexts (represented by 25 Wikipedia language editions). We compared interest in Wikipedia, as measured by pageviews, with a bird's body size and its regional observation frequency (using data from eBird.org). We found that local species (i.e., those that occur in the wild in the country responsible for the majority of a Wikipedia language edition's pageviews) attract more pageviews than global species. Both body size and observation frequency had a positive correlation with Wikipedia pageviews across languages, but eBird observation frequency explained more of the variance in pageviews on average. In a model that included both observation frequency and body size, observation frequency was a significantly better predictor of pageviews than body size in 24 of 25 languages. Our results demonstrate that the opportunity to encounter birds in the wild is a significant correlate of increased online interest in birds across multiple linguistic and geographic contexts. This relationship provides insight into why some species attract greater interest than others and emphasizes the overlooked potential of common species in conservation marketing.

Proxy variables of the closeness between humans and wildlife that associate with the public interest in bird species in Japan

“…The increased opportunities to observe nesting birds in nearby locations likely contributed to increased public interest. Furthermore, public interest is high for locally common species, which has been reported in previous studies (Correia et al 2016;Mittermeier et al 2021a;Żmihorski et al 2013). For example, Mittermeier et al (2021a) found that species with higher observation frequencies also had higher public interest based on eBird sightings as a proxy for direct encounters.…”

“…Our study revealed that people are interested in species that are ecologically close to humans, such as those that inhabit urban areas. In addition, most previous studies were conducted at a global scale (e.g., Ladle et al 2019;Mittermeier et al 2021a), whereas few have focused on regional or national scales. However, understanding the factors that in uence public interest in a particular cultural area is essential because cultural factors also affect public interest in species (Correia et al, 2016;Ladle et al, 2019).…”

Natural history films generate more online interest in depicted species than in conservation messages

“…However, in the context of this study, combining the Wikipedia page view data with a causal inference approach directly linked to broadcast dates minimises the risk of cultural and geographical biases due to the extremely focused timeframes we have measured increased engagement in. While it is important to note that using Wikipedia page view data in this way serves only as a proxy for measuring actual audience engagement with topics, previous research indicates that Wikipedia page views undoubtedly provide quantifiable insight into the popularity of particular topics and public interest in them (Mittermeier, Correia, et al, 2021; Mittermeier, Roll, et al, 2021; Roll et al, 2016). Wikipedia page views are a quick and easy metric for measuring engagement, however, we recognise this is not a fool‐proof method for measuring engagement as topics and species with a high degree of familiarity to the public may not spur individuals to seek out further information (i.e.…”

Using party press releases and Wikipedia page view data to analyse developments and determinants of parties’ issue prevalence: Evidence for the right-wing populist ‘Alternative for Germany’

“…We consider the data provided by Wikipedia as a useful and rich source that might help to measure preferences among the public and its changes on a short-term, that is, daily basis – in contrast to, for example, surveys which are mostly conducted on a monthly, sometimes weekly basis (e.g. Munzert, 2015; Mittermeier et al, 2021; see also Herrmann and Döring, 2021, who measure the ideological profile of parties on the basis of their Wikipedia entries). However, not much is known about the characteristics of Wikipedia users and whether they are representative for all citizens, for instance, in terms of education, gender, or ideological orientation.…”