Wildlife documentaries present a diverse, but biased, portrayal of the natural world

Abstract

1. Wildlife-documentary production has expanded over recent decades, while studies report reduced direct contact with nature. The role of documentaries and other electronic content in educating people about biodiversity is therefore likely to be growing increasingly important. This study investigated whether the content of wildlife documentaries is an accurate reflection of the natural world and whether conservation messaging in documentaries has changed over time.2. We sampled an online film database (n = 105) to quantify the representation of taxa and habitats over time, and compared this with actual taxonomic diversity in the natural world. We assessed whether the precision with which an organism could be identified from the way it was mentioned varied between taxa or across time, and whether mentions of conservation and anthropogenic impacts on the natural world changed over time.3. Mentions of organisms (n = 374) were very biased towards vertebrates (81.1% of mentions) relative to invertebrates (17.9% of mentions), despite vertebrates representing only 3.4% of described species, compared to 74.9% for invertebrates.Mentions were highly variable across groups and between time periods, particularly for insects, fish and reptiles. Plants had a consistently low representation across time periods. 4. A range of habitats was represented, the most common being tropical forest and the least common being deep ocean, but there was no change over time.5. Mentions identifiable to species were significantly different between taxa, with 41.8% of mentions of vertebrates identifiable to species compared with just 7.5% of invertebrate mentions and 10% of plant mentions. This did not change over time.6. Conservation was mentioned in 16.2% of documentaries overall, but in almost 50% of documentaries in the current decade. Anthropogenic impacts were mentioned in 22.1% of documentaries and never before the 1970s. 7. Our results show that documentaries provide a diverse picture of nature with an increasing focus on conservation, with likely benefits for public awareness. However, they overrepresent vertebrate species, potentially directing public

What can drawings tell us about children’s perceptions of nature?

“…The greater representation of, and higher taxonomic resolution afforded to, mammals and birds over invertebrates and herpetofauna is consistent with discrepancies found in children's drawings of other schools in the UK [52] and the tropics [53], nature documentaries [84] and flagship species used by NGOs for fundraising campaigns [85], and mirrors preferences for species that are larger, more colourful, have forward-facing eyes and are phylogenetically or physically similar to humans [85,86]. These same taxa are also more likely to be ranked as conservation priorities and attract monetary donations, trends which are mirrored in children as well as adults [61].…”

“…Our findings that children’s drawings mirror taxonomic biases found in conservation literature [ 87 ], nature documentaries [ 84 ] and marketing materials used by NGOs [ 85 ] suggest either that these biases are innate or that representations in wider culture or family settings have already coloured young children’s perceptions of biodiversity across school types by the time they enter secondary education. This matters because how species are perceived can have indirect effects on their risk of extinction [ 86 ]: the prominence of a species in wider society (societal salience) can make it more or less at risk of societal extinction (the loss of collective memory of a species, through the loss of attention, knowledge and representations associated with it from cultures and societies).…”

Addressing the challenge of wildlife conservation in urban landscapes by increasing human tolerance for wildlife

“…bats and vampirism; Prokop et al., 2009), media portrayals of wildlife (e.g. predators threatening humans; Howlett et al., 2023) or social media (e.g. videos showing conflicts between people and raccoons or opossums; Fidino et al., 2018).…”

Balkhash-Alakol Basin animal world database creation process for the purpose of cadastre maintenance

“…Hence, the enduring collection of data is paramount to ensure the statistical precision and reliability of research findings [7]. Furthermore, an integral aim of the database is to encompass diverse animal taxa, as conventional inventory summaries often exclusively address vertebrates [8]. However, gathering data on invertebrates is more intricate and requires specialized expertise.…”