#is the animal video cute

[animal-video-analysis]

We have lots of wonderful accounts that do a great job of telling if the animal video is cute or not, but it's important for everyone to exercise critical thinking skills and learn how to analyze them too! Here's an infographic with some basics on animal science that can help you decide what to look for.

Key questions for analyzing videos:

Are all of the animals and people in the video (including the filmer) safe? 

Is the animal choosing to participate?

What behavior or activity is being shown - is it a natural and positive behavior for the animal, is it enriching? Or may it be a negative behavior? You can search ‘animal’ ‘behavior’ online - like “gorilla picking itself” - for a quick check!

What’s the purpose of the video - is the situation created for the animal, or for viewers?

Is it sensible that the animal is there, doing what it is doing? 

Overall - figure out what you can see, and what you need to find out/double check, and then search that! Add it all up and you should be able to draw your own conclusions too.

Please check out some of our other posts for examples on how to think through videos you may see!

Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute. (2022, May 25). Animal Enrichment. Smithsonian's National Zoo. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/animal-enrichment 

Bielawski, J. (2017, January 5). Beware what you share! "Cute" videos are often cruel. Animal Help Now. Retrieved March 22, 2023, from https://ahnow.org/blog/2017/01/05/beware-what-you-share-cute-videos-are-often-cruel/ 

Goldstein, H. (2022, April 13). What to do when you see animal cruelty on Social Media. What to Do When You See Animal Cruelty on Social Media. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://www.worldanimalprotection.us/blogs/what-do-when-you-see-animal-cruelty-social-media 

American Veterinary Medical Association. (n.d.). Animal welfare: What is it? Animal Health Welfare. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://www.avma.org/resources/animal-health-welfare/animal-welfare-what-it Colchester Zoo. (2022, February 11). Environmental enrichment. Colchester Zoo. Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://www.colchester-zoo.com/about-us/environmental-enrichment/

[vampire-red]

I'm the creator of the blog previously know as thinkingcat / is the cat video cute which has for some reason turned into @flourishingskeleton I have no idea what happened to it, if it/a mod got hacked or another mod decided to change it. I have no intentions of trying to get it back. So ig that's an end of an era, just kinda pissed that all the content was deleted, oh well

[shitbrainratface]

Is the ___ video cute blogs: Anyone is welcome to also tag me in videos that are just cute in general! If you see a cute [animal], go ahead and tag me because I love seeing obviously cute videos!

Fans of the blogs: *does just that*

Some of you for some reason: omg it's literally just sitting there 🙄🙄🙄 do you guys really think this is a bad video! You guys are so annoying!

[heartwarminganimals]

Trail cam catching a deer fawn with the zoomies

[53v3nfrn5]

Stationery from Animal Crossing: City Folk (Nintendo Wii, 2008)

[ferretteeth]

Pigeon attempts to court falcon

[retrogamingblog2]

Unown Pokemon Key Caps made by RoyalKeycaps

[justcatposts]

Little jockey

(Source)

[53v3nfrn5]

Animals from Sonic Adventure 2 (2001)