Liked to death? The social media race for nature photos can destroy ecosystems – or trigger rapid extinction

Have you ever liked or shared a nature-themed social media post? It could be a photo of a rare orchid or an unusual bird. Or you share a stunning photo of an “undiscovered” place in nature.

It feels good to do this. You are sharing something beautiful, an antidote to negativity. But even this simple act is not without its problems.

Social media has become a huge force, having many positive impacts on nature, such as increased visibility and interest in citizen science and greater public knowledge of the species we share the planet with. For example, Australia’s largest citizen science project, the Aussie Bird Count, collected reports of 3.6 million backyard birds in one week, making good use of social media.

Unfortunately, this effortless exchange of information also has a dark side. As our new research shows, it is possible to love species to death.

How? Viral photos of untouched natural beauty can attract thousands of people to go there. And the more people arrive, the more they start to destroy what they loved to see on the screen.

And then there’s the competition among photographers and content creators who want to gain influence or visibility by publishing natural content. Unethical practices are common, such as playing the calls of rare bird species to attract them for a photo.

Of course, social media doesn’t cause direct harm. But the desire for positive feedback, visibility or revenue can be a very strong incentive to act badly.

Can social media really harm species?

The Blue-headed Henhead, which is threatened with extinction, now only lives in one province in China. There are currently around 300 animals in the wild.

There were so many people trying to find and photograph this rare bird that the Black-backed Starlings had to change their nesting habits to avoid flashbulbs and the sound of camera shutters.

Or consider the playback of bird songs. For scientists, playing bird songs is an important tool. They can use the sounds to attract seabird colonies back to their former nesting sites or to monitor threatened or hard-to-detect species.

Bird watchers and photographers can very easily abuse this ability by using bird identification apps and a loudspeaker to attract rare species. It may seem harmless, but luring shy forest birds outdoors carries the risk of being hunted by predators or can lure a mother from her nest. Playing calls can also make birds aggressive, change key behaviors, or disturb their breeding.

Bait, drones, poaching and trampling

The list of bad behavior is endless.

Wildlife photographers are known to use bait to take photos. They lay out food sources (natural or artificial), scent baits and decoys to increase their chances. But when bait is used routinely, it changes the animals’ behavior. The laying of bait by tour operators offering swim-with-shark tours has resulted in reduced gene flow, altered shark metabolism and increased aggressiveness.

Drone photography also brings with it problems. Drones frighten many species of wild animals, causing them to break out of cover, try to flee or become aggressive. In Western Australia, for example, an osprey was injured after a photographer flew his drone into it.

And then there are the world’s rare or fragile plants. On social media, we find beautiful images of wildflower meadows and rainforests. But when we visit these places together, we run the risk of trampling them. Unlike animals, plants can’t run away.

Take orchids, a family of flowering plants that has many human admirers. In the 18th century, the “orchidelerium” conquered Europe. Rich people paid orchid hunters to roam the globe and collect rare species.

In our time, orchids face another threat: visitors attracted through social media. Orchids are very particular – they rely on specific fungal partners. But this makes them very vulnerable when their habitat changes. One study found that 40% of 442 endangered orchid species are threatened by tourism and recreational activities.

Sharing locations is a big part of the problem. Even if you intentionally don’t specify where you took the photo, GPS coordinates are often embedded in a photo’s metadata.

In 2010, a new species of slipper orchid (Paphiopedilum canhii) was discovered in Vietnam. Photos with location information were posted online. Just six months after the discovery, more than 99% of all known specimens had been collected. The orchid is now extinct in the wild.

What should be done?

In general, we need to talk about the need to make ethical choices when portraying nature on social media.

However, there is one specific group that can help: the administrators of large social media groups dedicated to, say, wild orchids, bird watching, or scuba diving. Administrators have significant influence over what can be posted in their groups, and better moderation can make a big difference.

Site administrators can set clear expectations in their code of conduct. For example, they could prohibit photos of rare orchids until after they’re in bloom, or ban posts that include location information altogether and explain how to embed location data in photos.

Park and land managers have other tools at their disposal, such as banning drones in certain areas or making access to environmentally sensitive areas more difficult. For example, there is a very good reason why the location of wild woolly pine populations is kept secret.

Many of us probably haven’t thought about how much social media can harm nature. But it’s a real problem – and it’s not going away on its own.

Dr Belinda Davis of the Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions contributed to this article.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.