<b>See without being seen: a global overview of wildlife camera livestreaming initiatives and their potential for biological conservation</b>

Wildlife camera livestreaming is increasingly used for outreach, education, and non‑invasive wildlife monitoring, yet its scientific implementation and potential for biological conservation remain largely unassessed. Here, we provided a first assessment of wildlife camera livestreaming initiatives to explore taxonomic, environmental and socioecological patterns. Moreover, we evaluated the interactions between these aspects and identified primary constraints, establishing future research priorities to maximize their educational, scientific, and conservation potential. We conducted a global comprehensive review of wildlife camera livestreaming initiatives freely available online, for which geographical, taxonomic and socioecological variables were retrieved. Our online systematic search resulted in 228 independent broadcasts, revealing a marked concentration of initiatives in Europe and North America. Taxonomic representation was strongly biased toward birds. Wetlands and forests were the main habitat types represented, although anthropogenic environments accounted for one-third of all broadcasts. Most target species were classified as Least Concern and only 38 initiatives had explicit scientific aims. Economically driven livestreaming initiatives were largely concentrated in African countries and privately funded. Our study identifies major gaps in wildlife camera livestreaming practices and underscores its strong potential as a tool for conservation awareness, citizen science, long‑term monitoring, and behavioural research.