October Cats and hippos versus plants: What half a million social media posts reveal about invasives

Social media conversations about invasive species are driven more by charismatic animals, emotional appeal and celebrity influencers than ecological urgency, an international team of researchers has revealed.

An analysis of more than half a million posts over 15 years identified a striking concentration of influence on the platform then known as Twitter - just 1% of users (362 accounts) generated 60% of all retweeted content about invasive species.

They showed that charismatic animals, combined with dramatic human stories, generated the highest engagement.

The research, published in the journal Ecology and Society, was carried out by analysing posts through then-free API tool for academic research.

The focus on social media on megafauna, charming creatures, striking appearances, or unique behaviours and more familiar animals, reflects what ecologists label as "plant blindness."

Despite plants comprising 57% of endangered species* and including many highly destructive invasive organisms, they received disproportionately limited attention in online discourse. The research showed that invasive plants are not among the top 15 species mentioned in tweets.

The research team, led by Dr Susan Canavan, Honorary Researcher at the School of Natural Sciences at University of Galway, noted that this pattern reflects a broader disparity in conservation. Plants receive less than 4% of conservation funding*, an imbalance that social media trends both reflect and may even reinforce.

Dr Canavan said: "Some of our most damaging invasive species are plants, but they don't capture public imagination the way animals do. And when invasive plants are invisible in public discourse, building support for their management becomes exponentially more difficult.”

The social media accounts, which drove so much engagement on issues related to animals, included major news outlets such as The New York Times and CNN as well as government agencies, and invasion biology experts, along with celebrity and social media influencers with little or no expertise in conservation science.

YouTuber Logan Paul’s viral video about spearfishing for lionfish in Belize was a perfect illustration of how a celebrity influencer can sway public understanding and interest in ecological issues, despite a perceived lack of scientific credentials. The team also noted it has potential benefits and risks for accurate information dissemination.

Dr Canavan said: "We had a unique opportunity with Twitter's free academic access to understand what drives public attention to invasive species at a scale that had not been done before and where the gaps lie relative to scientific priorities. The patterns we found have important implications for conservation communication and policy. The concentration of influence is significant with a small number of voices shape how millions of people understand invasive species.”

The research team included Dr Canavan and Dr Kevin Healy from University of Galway; Newcastle University and University of Sterling in the UK; the Czech Academy of Sciences and Charles University in the Czech Republic; Rhodes University and University of the Free State in South Africa; Université Paris-Saclay, France; Pennsylvania State University, U.S.; and Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, Spain.

What gets attention and what doesn't?

The researchers tracked spikes in tweet activity to see what people actually talked about:

Cats topped the list of most-mentioned species. Despite being beloved pets, the researchers noted that cats have contributed to 63 species’ extinctions globally** and kill more than 1 billion birds in the US each year***. Managing cat populations remains deeply contentious, balancing wildlife conservation with ethical questions about the cats themselves.

Other mammals followed a similar pattern. Dogs, squirrels, goats, rats and horses were frequently mentioned, as were pigs, with domestic pigs that have gone feral being an alien species in the US and a particular economic and environmental issue.

Charismatic animals combined with dramatic human stories generated the highest engagement – a prime example being hippos in Colombia, which were imported illegally by the late drug cartel boss Pablo Escobar for his private zoo in 1980s. Following his death, the population bred freely in Rio Magdalena waterways. Media coverage of the animals spread widely across social media, and public opposition to culling the creatures proved so strong the plan was abandoned.

In 2020 the "mystery seeds" issue went viral, in which thousands of Americans received unsolicited seed packages, apparently from China, sparking widespread biosecurity concerns. The U.S. Department of Agriculture ultimately identified the shipments as a "brushing scam", a practice where vendors send inexpensive items to generate fraudulent reviews. Nevertheless, the episode generated substantial public engagement and prompted Amazon to prohibit imported plant and seed sales in the US.

The research team said the findings quantify previously anecdotal observations about which species and narratives resonate with non-specialist audiences. They noted concerns about social media data and how losing it could leave scientists blind to public perceptions in the future.

They researchers stated: “We appeal to social media platforms to maintain accessible data policies for academic researchers, as the insights gained from such analyses can benefit both conservation efforts and public understanding of environmental issues. As the landscape of social media platforms evolves, it is imperative that researchers remain adaptive to these changes to ensure the continued progress of research and knowledge in our field.”

The full study, published in Ecology and Society, is available at https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-16508-300413.

Ends

* https://www.fws.gov/sites/default/files/documents/endangered-species-expenditures-report-fiscal-year-2011.pdf

** https://abcbirds.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Doherty-et-al.-2016-Invasive-predators-and-global-biodiversity-loss.pdf

*** https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380