Social Media Photos Aid Butterfly Conservation & Biodiversity Research

The seemingly innocuous act of photographing a butterfly on vacation and sharing the image on social media could contribute to a deeper understanding – and protection – of the natural world. A new study demonstrates that geotagged photos posted to platforms like Facebook and Flickr are proving to be a valuable, and often overlooked, source of biodiversity data, filling critical gaps in traditional monitoring efforts.

Researchers from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) in Leipzig, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, and Monash University analyzed images of the tawny coster butterfly (Acraea terpsicore) sourced from Flickr and Facebook. The study, published in Conservation Biology on February 16, 2026, revealed a 35% increase in documented sightings of the species when social media data was integrated with records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Why Butterflies on Facebook Matter

The tawny coster was selected as a case study due to its striking appearance and ongoing range expansion from its native regions of India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka into other parts of South and Southeast Asia. This distinctiveness makes it a frequent subject for photographs shared online. The researchers combined these images with existing data from GBIF, an international database of species occurrences. This expanded dataset significantly improved the accuracy of species distribution models – tools used to estimate where species live and how their ranges are shifting over time.

Crucially, the inclusion of social media data provided records from regions previously underrepresented in scientific databases, including areas at higher elevations and with lower rainfall. These environmental conditions are becoming increasingly important as species attempt to adapt to climate change. “Social media is not just noise, but delivers data that can revolutionize our understanding of species distribution – and often the information we need most urgently,” explains Dr. Shawan Chowdhury of Monash University, the study’s first author.

Anyone Can Contribute – With Limitations

Not all species are equally amenable to identification via smartphone photography. Moths and beetles, for example, are less commonly found on social media platforms and can be difficult to identify accurately. Misidentification of species or misinterpretation of photos remains a potential issue. Expert verification remains essential. Despite these limitations, researchers see significant potential in leveraging citizen science data.

Professor Dr. Aletta Bonn of UFZ, iDiv, and the University of Jena emphasizes the importance of individual observations “to assess rapidly progressing changes in biodiversity in connection with climate change.”

Individuals interested in contributing directly can utilize apps like iNaturalist or the German app Flora Incognita, which directly feed observations into scientific databases. The study demonstrates that, when properly vetted, photos from social media can make a valuable contribution to biodiversity research.

The enhanced models revealed that GBIF-only records are underrepresented in areas with cooler maximum temperatures, lower rainfall, and higher elevations, environments that may prove critical for species survival under climate change. This highlights the importance of filling these data gaps to accurately predict species responses to environmental shifts.

The research team also compared the GBIF data with the social media sightings and found that the combined dataset captured faster and broader range expansions than models relying solely on GBIF records. This suggests that social media data can provide an earlier warning system for tracking invasive species or monitoring the impacts of climate change on species distributions.

While the tawny coster served as the initial test case, the researchers believe the methodology can be applied to other visually distinct species, particularly those undergoing rapid range shifts. The success of this approach hinges on continued development of automated image recognition tools and robust quality control measures to ensure data accuracy.

Original publication:
Chowdhury, S., Hawladar, N., Roy, R. C., Capinha, C., Cassey, P., Correia, R. A., Deme, G. G., Di Marco, M., Di Minin, E., Jarić, I., Ladle, R. J., Lenoir, J., Momeny, M., Rinne, J. J., Roll, U., Bonn, A. (2026). Harnessing social media data to track a species range shift: A case study using the tawny coster butterfly. Conservation Biology.