Number of comments made on a viral You Tube video

<p>. The relationship between number of comments and time; the two peaks coincide with the uploading of a second viral video of a slow loris holding a tiny cocktail umbrella and the production shortly thereafter of a slow loris conservation page on Wikipedia (March 2011) and the broadcasting of a BBC <i>Natural World</i> film on slow loris conservation, <i>The Jungle Gremlins of Java</i> (January 2012).</p

Categories into which we placed comments, example comments for each type, and total number.

<p>Categories into which we placed comments, example comments for each type, and total number.</p

Increasing awareness over time.

<p>Indicated are the monthly proportion (3-monthly running mean) of commentators that mention specific facts about the slow loris biology or conservation status. Key: “teeth pulled out” refers to comments referring to the removal of slow loris' teeth in the illegal slow loris pet trade; “poisonous/venomous” refers to comments made about the venomous nature of the slow loris' bite and/or the species being poisonous; “traditional Asian medicine” refers to comments made referring to the use of slow lorises in (traditional) Asian medicine.</p

Parallel sites.

<p>The video can be viewed on a large number of parallel sites; most of these are identical copies of the original, with some of them being several seconds shorter. Others show the video but with different types of background music. The dates below give an indication of virility of the video. When wired.com removed the video, Hamlollo became the main site to view it, and its viewing numbers soared; – indicates the video can no longer be viewed or was not yet uploaded.</p

Comments on a viral YouTube video.

<p>Indicated is the monthly proportion of commentators that indicate that they wanted a slow loris as pet and those that indicted that it is illegal to keep slow lorises as a pet and/or that slow lorises are globally threatened. The proportion of commentators wanting a loris decreased significantly over time (Pearson's Product Moment Correlation, n = 33, R2 = 44.6%, p<0.0001). The proportion of commentators reporting the loris to be illegal/endangered did not increase significantly over time (Pearson's Product Moment Correlation, n = 33, R2 = 9.4%, p<0.08).</p

Slow loris trade has many impacts.

<p><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0069215#pone-0069215-g004" target="_blank">Figure 4a</a> shows a confiscation by Thai authorities of non-native pygmy slow loris (<i>N. pygmaeus</i>) en route for the illegal pet trade, which could potentially pose invasive species issues (Photo by Thai CITES Authority). <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0069215#pone-0069215-g004" target="_blank">Figure 4b</a> shows a confiscation by Indonesian authorities of Sumatran slow lorises (<i>N. coucang</i>) en route to Java, all of which died, demonstrating that numbers at the end point are only an example of deaths that occur in trade (Photo by Dwi – WCS Sumatra).</p