In this age of modern technology and easy access to information, I think it’s important to spread awareness that our need for instant gratification and our constant use of social media could be resulting in serious consequences for wildlife
and not only
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
Is social media having a detrimental impact on our wildlife?
Posted: April 13, 2016
Written by: Sean de la Harpe-Parker
Life in the great outdoors is certainly not easy, as wild animals find themselves in a constant battle with their environment and each other. If given the chance, leopards and other big cats will often kill the cubs of a rival male, which encourages the female to go into a receptive state so that they can mate with her and continue their blood line.
Animal behaviour is influenced on a daily basis by human interference, and lately another ingredient has been added to the mix of what animals have to endure at our hands. This is the advent of using social media and mobile apps to allow safari goers to be directed towards sightings. Basically what happens is after being sighted, the animal’s location is then “tinged” out either on an app or it is broadcast on social media pages like Facebook. Exact GPS co-ordinates are often given in order to ensure those responding have an increased chance of seeing the particular animal.
leopard-cub-social-media
In a national park like Kruger, cell phone coverage is reasonably widespread throughout the south, and a culture of racing to “tinged” sightings seems to have developed. Even sightings on remote dirt roads are now turning into traffic jams packed with bad behaviour and people demanding to know where the lions are or whether the leopard is still there. There have also been many complaints recently on the SANParks and Kruger pages on Facebook that speeding in the Kruger National Park is out of control. Is it possible that in our quest for instant gratification, we are causing damage to a place we all love so much? Is it possible that social media and mobile apps have contributed to this problem? Before you make up your minds, allow me to share a story from January 2016.
It was another beautiful day in the Kruger National Park and my friends and I had been enjoying the venison pies at Tshokwane, when we decided to take the road down to Skukuza, before heading back to spend the night at Lower Sabie. The Maroela Loop is a 7km dirt road that links off the busy main road and is thus a quiet alternative. Although we have never had any luck with game viewing on this particular dirt road, we all agreed to take the loop for the peace and quiet.
Approximately 3km into the Maroela Loop we approached a dry stream and slowed down to scan the jackalberry tree on the western side. We couldn’t believe our luck, as there on an exposed branch was a young leopard cub. We took a few photos and looked around for signs of the mother. At this time the young leopard was looking disturbed and appeared to be trying to get down from the tree. We decided that we should leave, as we did not want the little one to stray from where the mother had left it. A young leopard without the protection of its mother is extremely vulnerable to being attacked by a hyena, lion, python or vagrant male leopard.
leopard-cub-tail-tree
What a sighting! We were elated at having discovered this tiny cub, but we all decided that it was in the best interests of the cub that we did not broadcast the sighting. If a sudden flurry of vehicles arrived on the scene, the cub would most certainly be flushed from the safety of the tree and possibly into the jaws of another carnivore. Having spent a lot of time in the bush we have learned that young leopard cubs should not be pressured – especially when without their mother. I would also like to stress that for the entire sighting, as well as the whole time we were on the Maroela Loop, we did not encounter another vehicle.
leopard-cub-face
The leopard cub starts to become uncomfortable with the presence of humans
Our young leopard continued with its life for five more days, when someone else saw it and decided to “ting” it. The cub had been left alone in another large jackalberry about 2km away from the location we had found it, while its mother must have gone hunting.
Well, the broadcast went out and the Maroela Loop became a flurry of activity. We were concerned and decided to go and investigate if the mother was with the cub, in which case we would perhaps be able to get some photos of the two together. Unfortunately, the loop had become a racetrack. People were speeding up and down and even stopped us to ask if we had seen the leopard cub. When we got to the co-ordinates that had been “tinged”, we switched off the engine and scanned the bush with binoculars. Within minutes of not seeing anything at all, about 10 other cars stopped and asked if we could see the leopard. At that stage we had seen nothing except lots of cars and tyre tracks going into the dry riverbed. By the evidence from the tracks we could guess where the young leopard had been left and focused our attention around that area.
Eventually I caught some movement with my binoculars and was horrified to see that a young male leopard was consuming the carcass of the leopard cub. From the state of the body the young leopard had probably been killed a couple of hours before we arrived. The male played with the body for about half an hour at the base of a marula tree before taking the remains up a jackalberry tree next to the road.
The male leopard that killed the cub
I was left with more questions than answers, and I wondered whether the young leopard would still be alive if its location had not been broadcast. Did the sudden activity of vehicles flush the cub from the safety of the tree into the jaws of the leopard? Did the seduction of a better shot cause people to break the rules and drive up the riverbed to get a winning photo of the youngster? Was the abuse of social media and the app a contributing factor?
In addition to this incident, we should not ignore the other possible side effects of reporting sightings in a real-time forum. These include: speeding to sightings and related animal deaths on the road, an increase of vehicle activity resulting in pressure on the animals and changes in the animals’ behaviour patterns with possible aggressive outcomes.
In this age of modern technology and easy access to information, I think it’s important to spread awareness that our need for instant gratification and our constant use of social media could be resulting in serious consequences for wildlife. Perhaps you don’t agree, but it’s most certainly something we should consider if we wish to offer nature and wildlife the utmost respect it deserves.
Yup, one part he is condemning the app, yet also monitors the app.
Out of concern they also decided to go look, increasing the traffic etc.
Think he missed the biggest culprit even though he mentions it when he says: "I would also like to stress that for the entire sighting, as well as the whole time we were on the Maroela Loop, we did not encounter another vehicle."
There is just too many people in the park. You don't need an app, just stop anywhere in the South and within minutes there is a traffic jam.
There are also issues on social media of people taking pictures in the park and making money off it, without acknowledgment to SANparks.
Some people submit their pics to organizations who then place them under their own names on You tube and collect the cash for it.
I would think there is more to applications than the eye sees.
Amoli that's an excellent point. In theory if you're going to be making money from a video you shot within one of the parks then you're supposed to have a license to do so from sanparks (see http://www.sanparks.org/docs/general/fi ... policy.pdf).
I asked Nadav a while back about this as Latest Sightings were actively trying to get people to submit their videos so that together they can make money from youtube (this revenue has probably surpassed their advertising revenue by now). His reply was this:
We will only publish videos that our contributors have the full license for.
So if you needed a permit while filming and you didn't get one, we will probably not be able to upload the video.
Whilst saying this is all very well, most people wouldn't know about the sanparks policy and so I very much doubt any of their videos are correctly licensed
I had a look at the contract some time back and the way I see it SP has no say over the photo's or video,s taken there as there is no contract between you and them, also you do not sign any form on entering the park as not to take photo's or video's of there animals and to use it for commercial purpose, 2ndly they will have to prove that the photo was taken in there park's
RobertT wrote:
There is just too many people in the park. You don't need an app, just stop anywhere in the South and within minutes there is a traffic jam.
