The idea of animal livestreams got the Texas Standard team talking at a recent meeting:
Raul Alonzo loves Athena, the great horned owl who lives at Austin’s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
Sarah Asch is into the Smithsonian Panda Feed.
Michael Marks likes UT Austin’s Tower Bird Cam (though the feed is down right now because of construction – hope the Falcon is okay!)
There’s also the Prairie Rattlesnake livestream – for those who like that sort of thing.
It turns out, all of these nature-focused livestreams have a benefit beyond a moment of diversion. New research from the University of Texas at Arlington shows they can foster meaningful human connections.
UT Arlington Social Work Professor Rebecca Mauldin co-authored the study, which is published in Current Opinion in Psychology. Listen to our interview with her in the audio player above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity.
Texas Standard: Let’s break down these two forms of connectedness you focused on. The first seems kind of obvious to me, connecting people to nature. Can you touch on that briefly?
Rebecca Mauldin: Absolutely. There’s been long-standing research that just being in nature, having exposure to nature is great for humans in all sorts of different ways, but you can think about the psychological benefits from it. And there’s been some curiosity about whether viewing nature in a virtual manner is also going to give you the same kind of benefits.
And, sure enough, it does. And one specific type of engaging with nature virtually is using the livestreams. You can watch them in groups, you can watch it individually, but it does allow a person to have a window onto nature anywhere that they have a screen.
But to the same extent as going outside? Are the benefits the same just experiencing that through a livestream?
From my perspective, we don’t have a definitive answer on that. Some researchers say that it’s exactly the same benefit. So that however much benefit you get from being outdoors in nature with direct exposure, you’re going to get the same from viewing nature livestreams.
I’m a little bit more cautious and conservative and say that we don’t know. We know the benefit is there, but we’re not quite sure that it’s the exact same.
But what it is great for, regardless, is people who may not be able to have that exposure. So it can be people who are experiencing some kind of disabling condition or have some kind challenges, whether it’s because of accessibility, availability, resources for getting out and having the experience with nature. It can be a really great opportunity for them to still get the benefits.
How does remotely engaging with nature help us connect with each other?
One is that there are actually communities of people who are also watching the livestreams. So people will have chats, discussion posts, be able to DM one another and have conversations around or facilitated by the livestreams.
Sometimes these conversations are all about what’s happening; people are getting educated about a life cycle of an animal. But a lot of times, they’ll kind of stray to more personal conversations and people may share things about feelings of loneliness or wanting to connect with others or a recent loss in the family or whatever it is and through this sharing the community can kind of step forward and provide each other with not only company but also social support for things that are happening in their lives.
Two other things. One, is that there is evidence that watching nature livestreams just enhances people’s prosocial attitudes. And so there’s something about the experience of watching nature through the webcams that people begin to feel more engaged socially, more positive feelings toward others in a social way. And that when they do interact with people live, that somehow those attitudes and behaviors transcend the experience of viewing nature online.
And then, last but not least, people will create in real life community around what they’re seeing on the livestreams. So just like you were talking about people in your office, people come together and start saying, ‘hey, I’ve started watching the bears or I’m watching hummingbirds.’ And then they have something in common to talk about. They may actually share physical space and watch the cameras together or they may have something to discuss after they’ve watched. They may also just be getting help from one another technically.
I have a hard one for you to end on. Do you have a favorite nature livestream?
Oh, that is an incredibly hard question because there’s so many.
So I’m a little bit partial to the bear cam, which is up in Katmai Falls in Alaska. And then in a lot of my research we have used, it’s a private platform, membership platform called Days at Dunrovin that has four webcams from a ranch up in Montana, and they have an osprey nest that they follow. And so that one’s near to my heart too.
If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.
Copyright 2025 KUT 90.5