Tristan revealed to us that before this year he only had one other moderator. "Growth was always slow but steady until about January this year when I added the first bunch of new admins, as dealing with the increased traffic was becoming too difficult on my own. Numbers increased from about 15,000 in January to about 45,000 at the start of April. The first Bored Panda article triggered a large spike in numbers—our group numbers spiked from about 45,000 to 100,000 in a few days. Overall, 300,000 have joined since January."

According to Tristan, part of the mass appeal of crappy wildlife photos is that pretty much everyone has taken bad photos at one point or another in their lives. "The 'good' photo groups aren't interested in bad photography, of course, so it gives people somewhere to share their lesser quality photos and have a laugh at themselves."

Tristan also pointed out that the submissions to the CWP group have increased exponentially during the coronavirus quarantine. "Over 1000 submissions per day," he said before adding that not all of them make it onto the page.

"We get a lot of very similar photos (deer and squirrels seem to be the most common), we try to keep the page interesting by posting a mixture of different kinds of wildlife. We try to make the group as inclusive and light-hearted as possible, somewhere to have a laugh and forget about reality, so to speak."

The Crap Wildlife Photography group is so large that it needs a strict system in place to keep its members in line and to monitor what kind of content gets uploaded. For example, if you want to join the group, your membership has to be approved and you’re also asked to fill out an online form. That’s right. There are applications. And rules.

Obviously, the CWP page does what it says on the tin. It’s meant for “poorly executed, poor quality, or otherwise photography faux pas” which means no high-quality snapshots that perfectly capture the magnificence of the natural world. The group’s admins joke that photos that look “too good” will be gently mocked or given bad photography advice.

The community also takes a firm stance on how people behave. They want people to have a good time, so they ban political and religious comments, as well as dark humor about animals being hurt.

They’re also pretty clear about how all the photos are supposed to be of wild animals. So no sneaking in a goofy pic of your adorable doggo or meowjestic floof of a cat! If you want to make it big in the CWP community, you’ll have to go on an adventure with your toaster of a camera to get the best worst wildlife photos that you can! Share your own crappy wildlife pics in the comments below, dear Pandas.