Cat videos and wild caracals: how the internet’s viral trends can help conservation

By Gabriella Leighton, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Cape Town
Laurel Serieys, Postdoctoral Fellow - University of California and Institute for Communities and Wildlife, University of Cape Town

Have you recently opened YouTube or TikTok and immediately gone looking for cat videos? If your answer is “yes”, then you’re not alone: the global consumption of cat-related media online is simply massive. In 2015, there were over 2 million cat videos on YouTube alone, with an average of 12,000 views each – a higher average than any other category of YouTube content.

“Cats” is also one of the most searched keywords on the internet. As of 2023, there were 502…

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