Okay so I gotta spill about this animal trends project. See, I was scrolling through endless animal videos last Tuesday night, you know how it goes. Suddenly I realized every second video was about capybaras – those giant chill rodents. Got me thinking: what furry thing blows up next?
Step 1: The Staring-At-Screens Phase
First thing Wednesday morning, I grabbed my laptop and did the obvious: opened every social app I have. Started tracking tags like #animalsoftiktok and #wildlifeInstagram. Manually! Wrote down which creatures kept popping up:
- Dumbo octopuses (those ear-flap things?)
- Sand cats (tiny desert murder-floofs)
- Pangolins looking like artichokes with legs
My coffee went cold three times. But patterns emerged – anything with unusual features or ridiculously cute got shared like crazy.
Step 2: The “Oh Crap” Spreadsheet Moment
Thursday I cracked open Excel – hate that thing but needed organization. Made columns for:
- Animal type
- Post frequency (counted manually like a caveman)
- Comment emotions (lots of 😍 and 😮💨)
- Memes generated per species
Shocking discovery: posts showing animal parenting moments got 5x more shares than cool wildlife shots. People go nuts watching otter mums holding babies while floating.
Step 3: Calling In Reinforcements
By Friday I was drowning in data. Texted my niece who’s 16 and basically lives inside TikTok. Made her sit with me for two hours while we scrolled. Kid pointed out stuff I totally missed:
- “Vote for next viral animal” polls everywhere
- People making up personalities for random roadkill (dark but true)
- Crossovers – like foxes sneaking into chicken coop videos
Her conclusion? Underdog species gaining traction now. Not tigers or elephants – they’re mainstream now.
Step 4: The Lightbulb Moment
Saturday morning epiphany while walking my grumpy corgi. To actually predict trends:
- Focus on weird not just cute (those blobfish are making a comeback)
- Watch small creator accounts, not big nature channels
- Track meme templates with animals – when they explode, boom trend
Tested it Sunday. Saw three niche videos of quokkas doing parkour moves on Twitter. Marked my calendar: “quokkas go viral in 3 weeks”. Betting my coffee maker on this.
So where’s it heading? Small, quirky animals doing human-ish stuff. And anything that looks like a Muppet accidentally loose in nature. Save this post – when everyone’s suddenly obsessed with naked mole-rats doing synchronized burrowing, remember who called it.
