This is a human dimensions study that used social media analysis to uncover the public's responses to the death of a Southern Resident Killer Whale calf. This calf was carried by its mother, Tahlequah, for over 2 weeks and went viral on Twitter. If you are having trouble with the quality of the SlideShare, this link https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rVrL3R5-jRKiLI7vexRvy3l-zKMKYIoN?usp=sharing will take you to google drive where you should have better luck. After viewing this presentation, please leave your comments or questions if you have any below or contact me at jules09@vt.edu.

2. Introduction
The Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) are the
smallest of four resident pods in the North Pacific. They are
critically endangered in Canada and the U.S. due to a lack of
prey (Chinook Salmon), noise disturbance, and toxic
contaminants.
In July of 2018, the calf of a female killer whale, Tahlequah,
died and she carried it for over two weeks. Tweets about this
event went viral.
The purpose of this study is to better understand how high-
profile deaths of individual wildlife lead to social media
dialogue that reveal the relationship between emotions,
wildlife value orientations, and anthropomorphic responses.

3. Twitter Moments
We analyzed two Twitter Moments
from this event and their respective
tweets.
Twitter Moments are curated stories
that showcase current topics that are
popular or relevant. They are intended
to help users keep up to date with what
the world is talking about while
simultaneously highlighting different
perspectives of the event.
To the left, there are clickable photos to
take you to Twitter Moments 1 and 2 if
you would like to view them.
Twitter Moment 2Twitter Moment 1

4. Twitter Moments Timeline
July 24
Tahlequah, a
member of the
Southern Resident
Pod, loses her
newborn calf
July 28
Twitter Moment 1 is
published and covers
the beginning of
Tahelquah’s “Tour of
Grief” with her dead
calf
August 10
Tahlequah releases
her calf after
carrying it for 17
days
August 13
Twitter Moment 2 is
published and covers
Tahlequah’s return to
her pod after letting
the dead calf go

5. Methods
Collected Twitter Moment Data
• Used Python-Package Selenium methods to extract
the text and hyperlinks from Twitter. These included
the viral tweets from two Twitter moments (n=19)
and their replies (n=702)
Codebook
• Defined the criteria for domination, mutualism, and
(Teel and Manfredo, 2010); sad emotion; and used
used Manfredo et al. (2020) to define
anthropomorphism and distinguish from
mutualism.
• 3 coders each coded 2/3 of the dataset, following
the codebook. Ensured intercoder reliability of .80
or higher.
https://www.seattlemag.com/news-and-features/best-whale-watching-sites-puget-sound-you-dont-need-boat

6. Codebook
http://movies.disney.com.au/inside-out/characters
https://mickey.disney.com/minnie
https://www.islandssounder.com/news/recreational-fishing-closed-statewide/
https://www.1zoom.me/en/wallpaper/421295/z3938/4498x2446

7. Twitter Sample Quotes
Domination
• “Because wild animals aren’t humans, that’s why. Just cause some animals in the wild show traits of
human emotions doesn’t make them humans. Wild animals are just that, wild animals and people who
think they have should have the rights as a human are loony.”
Mutualism
• “The loss of a newborn orca calf from our endangered southern resident killer whale population
underscores what’s at stake as we work to protect these iconic, beautiful animals from vanishing
completely.”
Anthropomorphism
• “So sad. Who says animals don't have emotions and feelings.”
Sad Emotion
• “Breaks my heart.”

8. Results
Domination
Mutualism
Anthropomorphism
Sad Emotion
COMBINED
TWITTER DATA
TWITTER
MOMENT 2
TWITTER
MOMENT 1
CODES
0.4%
34.4%
15.7%
53.0%
0.0%
12.4%
30.0%
41.0%
0.3%
28.0%
19.8%
49.5%
Figure 1. The average percentages codes expressed in Twitter Moment 1 (n=511), Twitter Moment 2 (n=210), and the Combined Twitter Moment Data (n=721)

9. Results
Counter to our
expectations, we found
only 13% of tweets that
expressed a mutualist
orientation also
expressed
anthropomorphism.
Figure 2. The relationship between mutualism and anthropomorphism in # tweets.

10. Conclusions
• Mutualism is expressed more than domination in response to a mother killer whale’s response
to the death of her calf.
• Anthropomorphism in news can result in emotive, anthropomorphic, and mutualistic responses
on Twitter.
• The character counts of Twitter may limit the expression of wildlife value orientations and
anthropomorphism simultaneously.
• Next Steps: Use social media analysis to study media covering popular species and less known
species, as well as individual animal events vs. population events. This can give us more
information on how the relationships of people’s emotions, wildlife value orientations, and
anthropomorphism may change towards these new topics.

11. Acknowledgements
Thank you to Kelly Biedenweg for introducing our research
team to this event and the associated social media response.
The Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife
Conservation provided support for the lead author to share
this study.
o Manfredo, M. J., Urquiza-Haas, E. G., Carlos, A. W. D.,
Bruskotter, J. T., & Dietsch, A. M. (2020). How
anthropomorphism is changing the social context of modern
wildlife conservation. Biological Conservation, 241, 108297
o Teel, T. L., and Manfredo, M. J. (2010). Understanding the
diversity of public interests in wildlife conservation.
Conservation Biology, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 128-139.
https://komonews.com/news/local/granny-oldest-southern-resident-orca-to-date-in-puget-sound-dies
For more information, please contact Julianna Duran at
jules09@vt.edu