November 05, 2005

WildFinder -- Geog for Animals

WWF’s WildFinder “is a map-driven, searchable database of more than 26,000 species worldwide, with a powerful search tool.”

Hmmm, this might have answered a reference question I heard about recently: what are the fauna local to Holyoke, Mass? Shows 376 species in “Northeastern coastal forests”. They’re sorted by scientific name by default, but you can sort by common name, class, and threat status. Click on the “Images” link to do a search for that creature in Google Images.

When you do a search by species, you see what ecoregion supports the species, get a description of that region from either National Geographic or the WWF itself. Not a lot of info on the animals, but quite a bit about their habitat.

It’s a slow site, but pretty cool.

From the World Wildlife Fund. Found via the NSDL (National Science Digital Library) which is worth checking out if you haven’t yet.

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