Privacy

Updated 12 November 2026

What leaves your browser

Species photographs are served from this site. Each one credits its author and licence and links to its file on Wikimedia Commons; following that link is a request to Wikimedia. The legality checker downloads one small data file for the animal you pick, so our server log can show that file name; the state you choose stays in your browser and nothing you pick is stored against you.

What we count

We count visits with Umami, an open-source analytics tool that runs on our own server. It records the page viewed, the site that sent you, your country and city (worked out from your IP address, which is not stored), and your browser and device type. Umami sets no cookies and does not build a profile of you, and the numbers are never sold or shared. The ads described below are separate from this.

Advertising

This site may show ads served by Google AdSense. Google and its advertising partners can use cookies and similar technologies to show ads, including ads based on your earlier visits to this site and to other sites, to measure how ads perform and to prevent fraud. To do this they receive your IP address, your browser and device details and the page you are viewing. We do not receive that information, only totals of how the ads performed.

Google explains how it uses information from sites like this one at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. If you click an ad you leave this site, and the advertiser's own privacy policy applies. We do not choose the ads, ads never change what a page says, and an ad is not an endorsement. This site does not sell or trade animals, and an advertisement for a live animal, a wildlife product or a pet is not something we have checked or recommend.

Your choices about ads

• Turn off personalised ads in Google Ad Settings.
• Opt out of personalised ads from many other companies at aboutads.info, or at youronlinechoices.com if you are in the UK or Europe.
• Block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Ads can still appear, but they are less likely to be personalised.

Never paste private information into this site. There is nowhere to put it.