Exploring perceptions of Italian urban wildlife on TikTok

In Western cities, some animals are valued for their beauty, rarity or usefulness, while others are dismissed as unwelcome. This distinction reflects the cultural meanings attached to each species and frequently conflicts with ecological priorities. Understanding how urban animals are perceived is essential to link public attitudes with biodiversity conservation efforts. This study examined how Italian TikTok users perceive urban animals by analysing more than 2000 videos. We looked at (a) posting volume and engagement to see which species attract attention, (b) adjectives in captions, comments, and transcripts to identify how animals are described and (c) emojis in captions as indicators of publicly expressed emotions toward different species. Our analysis revealed strong taxonomic bias: mammals generated high engagement and posting frequency, while most birds and insects received lower engagement, with notable exceptions including pigeons, seagulls and hornets. However, platform-specific dynamics also mattered. For example, squirrels appeared in many videos but generated little engagement, while crows and seagulls gained visibility through meaningful human–animal interactions or participation in memetic trends. Urban animals were predominantly framed through playful and humorous lenses rather than simply positive or negative terms, with even typically disliked species such as nutria and pigeons described using amusing adjectives and cheerful emojis. Emojis expressing fun, laughter and cuteness dominated across species, although notable differences emerged between squirrels (love and affection) and spiders (fear and disgust). These findings suggest biodiversity communication campaigns could adopt TikTok's playful styles and leverage platform-specific trends to increase engagement with underrepresented or typically disliked species.