ZipcodeZoo is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all living species and infraspecies known to science.[2] It is compiled from existing databases. It offers one page for each living species, supplementing text with video, sound, and images where available. ZipcodeZoo.com was launched in 2004.
Type of site | Encyclopedia |
|---|---|
| Created by | David Stang Jim Hetland |
| URL | zipcodezoo |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional |
Goals
ZipcodeZoo.com provides a field guide for amateur and professional naturalists, providing assistance in species identification. Specifically, the site strives for comprehensiveness, currency, great illustrations, and responsiveness.
- comprehensiveness.
- Information is provided on every species listed in the Catalogue of Life: 2015 Annual Checklist, which builds on 151 databases developed by taxonomists specializing in various groups of plants or animals.
- Every page builds on the expertise embodied in Wikipedia, which has been found to be about as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica.
- currency. An encyclopedia must contain current information to be useful.
- Information on any species is constantly expanding, and sometimes changing. ZipcodeZoo.com uses Wikipedia as one primary source of information; to keep current, the English version is mirrored monthly, and pages are republished as Wikipedia's content changes.
- Scientific names change. When a user searches for any of 945,000+ synonyms, they will be automatically redirected to the preferred name.
- copious illustrations. The site mines Flickr and Wikimedia Commons for photos, Youtube for videos, and Xeno-Canto for sound recordings, all to assure that a user understands what a species looks and sounds like.
- responsive layout. Sites such as Wikipedia are not designed to work in cellphones or other devices which may have limited resolution, and when they load, menus collapse into a heap and tables run off the page. ZipcodeZoo.com will be the first Mediawiki site to have a responsive design (coming soon!).
- Use of geolocation. Species identification is a matter of probability. We do not want to conclude we have seen X if X is extinct, or only found in Antarctica.
- Finders. You can use geolocation information (captured automatically by HTML5 and most smart devices) to help you sort through what you've seen using the various finders at Lookup Life.
- maps. The site includes maps from GBIF for all species. Maps allow panning, zooming, changing the map style, and scrolling through time to see how an animal population has changed.
- ^ "ZipcodeZoo Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2015-3-14.
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