Biggs Leo, Baxter Greg S, Debus Stephen J S, Finch Neal, Riggs Anysha, Houweling Hayden, Appleby Melissa, Murray Peter J
School of Agriculture and Environmental Science University of Southern Queensland Toowoomba Queensland Australia.
Zoology, School of Environmental and Rural Science University of New England Armidale New South Wales Australia.
Ecol Evol. 2025 Jun 4;15(6):e71415. doi: 10.1002/ece3.71415. eCollection 2025 Jun.
Accurate dietary information is important to improve ecological knowledge and assist in the conservation of threatened predators and their prey. Globally, many raptor populations are threatened and would benefit from accurate diet information. However, the existing methods of collecting diets can be time consuming, biased, or unfeasible for large spatial areas. Use of citizen science has been suggested to address these issues, but critical analysis of the method and comparison with existing methods is largely incomplete. Here, we evaluate the accuracy, efficiency, and biases of raptor diets data mined from social media. Two Australian coastal raptor species, Eastern Osprey ( ) and White-bellied Sea-Eagles (WBSE) (), were searched on Facebook and Instagram. Photographs and videos showing these raptors in possession of prey items were catalogued to form diets. The time taken to collect and identify prey items was recorded. The social media method was effective, producing large quantities of high quality media that recorded raptors and their prey. Study analyses utilised 1484 Eastern Osprey and 501 WBSE prey items posted between 2019 and 2023. Diet completeness was high, with a greater number of prey species observed in each region than previous studies. The prey identification rate to the family level was comparable with other direct visual observation methods at 58%. A consistent diet was observed between social media platforms. Eastern Osprey diet was similar to previous studies in New South Wales, except for a single prey family. WBSE diet was more varied than previous studies, which appeared biased by a locally high availability of certain prey species. The social media method was also efficient, with prey items collected and identified at a rate of 0.21 h per prey item; over 25 times faster than other raptor diets collected using direct visual observations. Furthermore, the social media method countered the biases of alternative methods such as small population samples, restricted spatial coverage, and over or under-representation of animal classes. However, it produced new biases requiring quantification such as human activity hotspots, potential difficulty identifying small prey, and an over-representation of easily identifiable or 'interesting' prey. Overall, the use of social media was effective and efficient at recording raptor diet and is encouraged for other raptors and predators.
准确的饮食信息对于增进生态知识以及协助保护受威胁的食肉动物及其猎物至关重要。在全球范围内，许多猛禽种群受到威胁，准确的饮食信息将使它们受益。然而，现有的收集饮食信息的方法可能耗时、存在偏差，或者在大空间区域内不可行。有人建议利用公民科学来解决这些问题，但对该方法的批判性分析以及与现有方法的比较在很大程度上并不完整。在此，我们评估了从社交媒体挖掘的猛禽饮食数据的准确性、效率和偏差。我们在脸书和照片墙（Instagram）上搜索了两种澳大利亚沿海猛禽物种，即东方鱼鹰（Eastern Osprey）和白腹海雕（White-bellied Sea-Eagles，WBSE）。对展示这些猛禽捕食猎物的照片和视频进行编目，以形成饮食记录。记录收集和识别猎物所需的时间。社交媒体方法是有效的，产生了大量高质量的记录猛禽及其猎物的媒体资料。研究分析使用了2019年至2023年间发布的1484份东方鱼鹰和501份白腹海雕的猎物记录。饮食记录的完整性很高，每个区域观察到的猎物种类比以前的研究更多。猎物在科级水平上的识别率与其他直接视觉观察方法相当，为58%。在不同社交媒体平台上观察到一致的饮食情况。东方鱼鹰的饮食与新南威尔士州以前的研究相似，只有一个猎物科除外。白腹海雕的饮食比以前的研究更加多样化，这似乎受到当地某些猎物种类丰富的影响而存在偏差。社交媒体方法也很高效，以每个猎物0.21小时的速度收集和识别猎物；比使用直接视觉观察收集的其他猛禽饮食记录快25倍以上。此外，社交媒体方法克服了其他方法的偏差，如种群样本小、空间覆盖受限以及动物类别代表性过高或过低等问题。然而，它产生了一些需要量化的新偏差，如人类活动热点、识别小猎物的潜在困难以及容易识别或“有趣”的猎物代表性过高。总体而言，社交媒体在记录猛禽饮食方面既有效又高效，鼓励对其他猛禽和食肉动物采用这种方法。
