Table 1. Social media data vs traditional data for identifying Hawaiian monk seals, their locations and human disturbance.

We show the number of seal reports obtained through traditional and Instagram-based reports, and results of z tests comparing the proportions of reports with seals/beaches identified and disturbances noted.

Instagram vs Traditional data 10/1/2014–9/30/2015
	Traditional	Percent	Instagram	Percent	P value (Z test)	Z	df	P value
Seal reports—total	7655		2392
Individual seals identified	205		68
Seal reports—seal identified	6123	79.99%	396	16.55%	2.20E-16	56.73	2391	<0.00001
Seals of Concern	31	0.40%	14	0.58%	0.3284	-1.16	2391	0.123
Seal reports—beach identified	7485	97.78%	1011	42.26%	2.20E- 16	65.6	2391	<0.00001
Human disturbance—total	49	0.64%	426	17.80%	2.20E- 16	-34.53	2391	<0.00001
Human disturbance—minor*	19	0.24%	407	17.01%	2.20E- 16	-35.56	2391	<0.00001
Human disturbance—major**	24	0.31%	19	0.79%	0.003029	-3.15	2391	0.00164

*Minor human disturbance includes the seal looking, mouthing or moving at least a body length.

**Major human disturbance involves the seal flushing to the water.