Can poachers locate rhinoceroses using social media data?

Illegal wildlife trade is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity conservation, as many species, including iconic species such as rhinoceroses and elephants, are targeted for their meat, trophies and other body parts. With estimated 2.5 billion users, the ease of access has turned social media into an important venue for sharing nature-based content from conservation areas. However, social media users often release geotagged photos and other information that might reveal the occurrence of species in conservation areas. This has risen concerns, especially in the fight against illegal killing of commercially valuable species, such as rhinoceros, elephants and cycads. Openly posted social media content can, in fact, can be freely accessed via the application programming interface of social media platforms.
No previous study has assessed the associations between social media data posts and illegal killings using empirical data. In this study, we fill this gap, and assess the spatio-temporal relationships between the geotagged social media posts containing pictures of and textual references to rhinoceroses and the actual locations of where rhinoceroses were killed inside Kruger National Park in South Africa. For doing this, we used social media content posted on Twitter, Instagram and Flickr between 2013 and 2015, and empirical data on illegal killings. Our results highlight the need for conservation authorities to work in collaboration with social media companies to prevent the release of locations of valuable species and further educate the general public.