ZipcodeZoo

ZipcodeZoo.com (ZipcodeZoo) is a free, online collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all living species, hybrids, and cultivars known to science. Its 2,646,558 pages are compiled from existing databases and from contributions by experts and non-experts throughout the world. It aims to be a useful Field Guide to plants and animals of the world, including video, sound, images, graphics, as well as text.
Highlights
Usability
Definitions and Pronunciations
234,889 terms have popup definitions wherever they occur on a page. In addition, for nearly 17,000 taxonomic terms, there is a speaker icon that, when clicked, will pronounce the Latin term.
Intelligent Search
Listing tools can give lists based on latitude and longitude, place name, or species characteristics.
*Country and Region Lists list species found in a specified area.
*ProximityLists list species found near a specified Latitude and Longitude.
*PlantFinder finds one or more plants that match some set of characteristics of interest using 1,555,827 attributes for 209,411 plants on the site.
*ButterflyFinder's database includes lookup info and photos for 2,308 different butterflies, skippers, and moths of the 271,314 on the site.
*BirdFinder finds one or more birds that match some set of characteristics of interest using 102,204 attributes for 4,753 of the birds on the site.
*LifeList allows a user to build and manage their life list of plants and animals.
Involving Users
Volunteer Curators
ZipcodeZoo Curators are professional or advanced amateur biologists with specialized knowledge of a taxonomic group at the family level or below. Curators choose the taxonomic group that they will be responsible for. ZipcodeZoo's Curator program provides an opportunity for our users to share their knowledge of a taxonomic group with the rest of the world. Over 16,000 species pages now have curators.</li>
CritterID Forum
This forum enlists naturalists from around the world to help identify user-submitted photos.</li>
User-Contributed Photos and Text
All pages which present information about a species include a link at the bottom to "Edit this Page". Users may suggest changes to 18 animal fields and numerous plant fields. Photos may also be uploaded by users, and over 1,000 amateur and professional nature photographers have done so to date.
Maps, Images, Videos, and Sounds
Many Photos, Many Sources
Pages contain 312,841 photos taken by 1,408 photographers, and 1,471 sound recordings. 107,064 Large photos can be zoomed and panned. Pages with images include slideshows that can be paused, viewed full screen, and run at a user-selected pace. Hundreds of 3-D photosynth images of plants and animals are available
Maps
A typical species page contains a Distribution tab, with four menu options: Distribution, Observations Data, View Choropleth Map, and View Observations Map. The Distribution page shows information on Range and Population, perhaps one of 240,593 State Maps if found in the U.S., perhaps one of 744,777 Country Maps, a Google map showing the points on the map where this species has been reported, and an Occurrence Overview map. The Observations Data menu item provides details of the observations in a sortable spreadsheet format. On the Choropleth Map tab, you may pan and zoom to see where the species is most commonly found, with reds showing the highest densities of observations, yellows the lower densities. This embedded Google Earth map may be panned, zoomed, and rotated, as can the Observations Map on this menu item. Our nearly 500,000 maps of observations draw on a total of 85,345,065 field observations from 28,481 data sets and 1,547 data providers which show latitude and longitude. Click on a pinpoint on any map with such pinpoints, and you'll learn more about that observation. For an example of the 479,824 species pages with observation maps, see here.
Sounds
ZipcodeZoo now has animated real-time sonograms for each of the 1,470 animal sound files used in the site. The sonograms show both the waveform and the spectrograph of the sound. For an example, see the page for the Black-Crested Titmouse.
Contributions to Science
Population Analysis
ZipcodeZoo's database of 85,345,065 field observations includes information on when the observation was made, so it is possible to track changes in the number of observations for a species, or any grouping of species, over time. By comparing the number of observations of a species over time with the number of observations for that species' Class, we can make inferences about changing population sizes. Statistical analyses suggest which species may be in trouble, which might be prospering in these difficult times. You can find lists of invasive, endangered, vulnerable, and extinct animals, as well as lists of invasive, endangered, vulnerable, and extinct plants. More information on our statistical analyses may be found here.
EcoCharts
The EcoChart is a pie chart showing the relative likelihood of observing particular other species commonly observed near the subject. Likelhood considers both the frequency with which the subject is observed at all locations where it has been reported, and the number of observations of all other species at each of those locations. A species that is common where the subject is common will have a higher score than if only one of these species is common at that location. For an example, see the Ecology tab here.
EcoWheel
ZipcodeZoo's "EcoWheel" on the Ecology tab of pages such as this shows the species of interest and those species most commonly observed where it is observed. A line connects the subject species to each of these species. Each of these species, in turn, has a line connecting it to any of the others when they are commonly observed in the same locations. Moving your mouse pointer over a species name will highlight the links from that species to others, and each species name is also a link to a ZipcodeZoo page for that species. Data for the EcoWheel is computed by examining all locations where our subject species has been reported, and determining the most commonly observed species at each of these locations. These observations are weighted, so that those where the subject is most common are given more weight than species at those locations where the subject is rarely observed.
Habitat Inferences
On every species page with an Ecology tab, you'll find a section entitled "Characteristics of Habitat". This section provides the information available on habitat, and then supplements it with additional inferences. ZipcodeZoo makes some habitat inferences based on the known habitat preferences of those species most commonly reported where the subject species is most commonly reported. Such inferences may include lists of zones, vegetation types, terrains, soil and rock details, water, slopes, and more where the subject is commonly found. For an example, see the Ecology tab here.
Feedback on Reported Sightings
With its database of 127,715,643 field observations, errors are very likely to creep in. ZipcodeZoo has pioneered a means by which users can help remove errors from observations. Our approach is described here, and demonstrated here. ZipcodeZoo has implemented this on each species page's Distribution tab, Observations Data menu item, such as here.
In Our Common Interest
The Wild Future
ZipcodeZoo concern for the future of wild things is reflected in , a web site with forecasts and information about the future of the planet. In addition ZipcodeZoo includes a section of Trend Analysis, with papers on trends in biodiversity, ermafrost, atmospheric carbon dioxide, atmospheric methane, global temperatures, snow and ice cover, and more.
Similar Websites
*BioSearch : Marine Biodiversity Database of India
*eBird
*Encyclopedia of Life
*National Biodiversity Network

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu