Sources & Fact-Checking

What counts as a source

A species fact is only stated if it can be read on a page of a named source: the IUCN Red List for the global conservation category, the national or regional authority for the legal status in the country of the story, and conservation projects with a name and a website for the work on the ground.

Each page lists its sources in a numbered list, with the URL and the date it was consulted. The facts in the species sheet point to those numbers. If a source is updated after that date, the page may lag behind it until it is checked again.

What is never stated

Nothing from the story. A story may say that a bear fell, that a lynx was found on a road or that a vulture could not take off; none of that is a fact about the species, and none of it appears in the species sheet.

Threats are described by their consequence and by the law that covers them, never by their method: no substances, doses or placements. A page about an animal does not need to explain how to harm one.

Figures without a source. Population numbers, assessment years and legal categories are quoted as the source gives them, with its year. Where a number is an estimate, it is written as one.

If something is wrong

Write through the contact page with the page, the sentence and the source you have. Corrections change the page and its date; the full history is public, because the site is generated from a repository where every change is recorded.