Aside from posting photos of countless plates of fish and chips or your name on the side of a Starbucks cup, Instagramming photos of zoo animals is all the rage. Social media is awash with cute baby otters and long-necked giraffes. Today, the London Zoo is even celebrating World Penguin Day by tweeting hourly photos from their Penguin Beach.

The Calgary Zoo has taken a step toward the integration of social media and investor relations by releasing what is purportedly the world’s first annual report via Instagram. The report features 55 images with corresponding captions describing a Zoo initiative or relevant information.

Trigger & Co., the agency that created the annual report says, “The idea came from a creative insight that along with a zoo record of 1.457 million visitors in 2012, there came a record number of images on Instagram tagged #calgaryzoo. Our audience was using the channel – why shouldn’t we?”

Annual reports, traditionally bemoaned as dull, environmentally harmful tomes have been given new life through digital in recent years. Corporate apps often focus on presenting stakeholders with information in a more interactive, interesting manner. Tablets and smartphones have revolutionised corporate reporting as they allow investors access to real-time information on their own devices.

Simon Lee, CEO of app development company Locassa, says, “Mobile has always been there in the corporate world. But a lot of managers and stakeholders hadn’t seen the potential of it beyond communications channels. What has happened more recently, with Apple and Google pushing the boundaries of what we can do with these devices, performance is above and beyond the standard phone calls, text messages and email.”

While Alberta stands alone for now, as the first to publish a completely social annual report on Instagram, there’s reason to believe it won’t be the last.