Earlier this month one of Zimbabwe’s best-known animals, a lion named Cecil, was killed by an American hunter, causing outrage to erupt on social media.
Renny MacKay, communications director with Wyoming Game and Fish, says Wyoming’s Stop Poaching program uses social media, the Game and Fish website, and a hotline to report hunting violations. He says sharing images online lets people connect with wildlife and because of that, he says social media is a key tool for reaching the public and spreading the word about hunting violations here in Wyoming.
"We get a lot of interest in that. On average our content on social media when we talk about issues related to violations it usually gets about 60 percent more interest than other posts," he says.
MacKay says in his experience hunters are actually the most invested in finding and prosecuting people who hunt illegally.
