Authors: Akasaka, Munemitsu; Kubo, Takahiro ;Soga, Masashi ;

Public conservation support for a species can powerfully influence the success of conservation policies and actions. To maximize the effectiveness of the limited resources available for conservation, it would be beneficial to develop a way to predict the degree of public conservation orientation. Here, we explore the utility of the frequency of accessing web content featuring particular species, a direct measure of information-seeking behavior, to predict public conservation orientation. Specifically, we tested whether pageviews of Wikipedia content featuring 100 threatened species in five taxonomic groups (mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, insects, and plants) is associated with public conservation orientation toward these species in Japan. Wikipedia pageviews predicted public conservation orientation for species conservation for the two most salient taxonomic groups (mammals and birds). This relationship, however, was not evident for the other three taxa. Overall, information-seeking behavior could be used as a proxy for public conservation orientation for mammals and birds, but should be interpreted with caution. Based on this finding, a couple of examples utilizing Wikipedia pageviews to guide conservation efforts will be showcased.