Representations of human–elephant interactions on YouTube: Analyzing content and engagement to inform sustainable practices for wildlife tourism

Abstract

The viewing of free-ranging wildlife (especially those that are charismatic among the global public) remains popular as tourism, and it is important to monitor the impact of tourist activities on sustainability and animal welfare. It can be difficult to evaluate the impact of tourism on a broader scale, but a conservation culturomics approach may gather relatively large datasets consisting of user-generated content (e.g., social media) that reflect human–nature interactions. We utilized a sample of YouTube videos (n = 479) to characterize patterns in content and engagement of content representing human–elephant interactions in Sri Lanka. Beginning in 2009, we found a growing number of YouTube videos related to wild elephant tourism in Sri Lanka, with most videos (90 %) containing footage from protected areas. However, the prevalence of videos depicting stress behavior by elephants also increased over time. Stress behavior was more commonly observed in non-protected areas, and along with human-directed aggression, it was associated with proximity to people and human-initiated interactions. Video engagement was associated with several factors, including the number of channel subscribers, location, and human visibility and proximity. Together, these results demonstrate the potential of, and challenges associated with, wild elephant tourism in Sri Lanka serving conservation purposes, which may be representative of nature-based tourism that involves free-ranging populations of charismatic, flagship species around the world. Further studies utilizing a diversity of methodologies and involving a range of stakeholders will elucidate the impact of tourism on the sustainability of natural landscapes and the wellbeing of individual animals.