What are the disadvantages of trying to study animals in the wild?
Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel is an elephant researcher. She studies how elephants deal with emotions, especially how they react to the death of a loved one.
She spent years trying to observe this in the wild, but in all that time saw just one elephant’s death. Nowhere near what she needed for her research. So she turned to a novel source to gather information - YouTube.
Why are scientists turning to YouTube to study animal behaviour?
One single person exploring the wild may spot one or two interesting cases of animal behaviour. Many people are going to spot many cases individually. When they upload their videos on social media, you have a treasure trove that a single scientist couldn’t have gathered, even if they spent a hundred years in the wild.
Scientists have learned valuable things about animal behaviour - about crows, killer whales, elephants, spiders, etc. - from videos uploaded by tourists.
What did scientists learn about Asian elephants from YouTube videos?
Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel and her fellow scientist Nachiketa Sharma discovered that elephants feel intense grief when a loved one dies. A mother elephant carries around her dead baby for weeks on her tusks. Adult elephants keep pushing their dead friend to wake up and start walking. The whole herd of elephants come together to stand silently around a community member who has passed away (their version of a funeral).
Using these videos, Pokharel and Sharma figured out that elephants are far more intelligent and loving creatures than we thought them to be.
How can I help scientists learn more about animal behaviour?
Borrow your mum or dad’s phone and go exploring. Observe animal behaviour (from a safe distance) and film anything you think is important or unusual - whether it’s at a fancy wildlife sanctuary during your next family vacation or crows and street dogs in your neighbourhood. It is important to remember to never hurt the animals. Upload these videos on YouTube. Label and describe them properly. That way, a scientist will be able to find them more easily.
There you go! You have just contributed to progress in science.
