Data Sources & How This Site Is Built
This page documents where the data behind every country profile comes from and how it is checked. It is here so that anyone using this site for research, teaching or a project can verify it independently rather than take it on trust.
What is on this site
The database currently covers 177 countries and territories. Each entry records the animal used as a national symbol, its scientific name, its IUCN Red List conservation status, the class it belongs to, and the continent it comes from. Of those entries, 74 use a species that is currently listed as threatened.
Where the data comes from
Conservation status is taken from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the global standard for conservation assessment. Statuses are recorded at species or subspecies level depending on what the Red List publishes for that taxon.
Scientific names follow current taxonomic nomenclature. Where a national symbol is a subspecies rather than a species, the subspecies is given, because the conservation status of a subspecies can differ from the wider species.
Symbol choice and the reason behind itis compiled from national heraldry: official coats of arms, currency, statutory instruments and national encyclopaedia entries. Where a symbol is heraldic rather than zoological — for example a lion that appears on a coat of arms but has no wild population in that country — the entry says so explicitly instead of implying the species lives there.
Coordinates are country centroids, used only to place a country on the globe in the quiz. They are not intended as precise range or habitat data.
How entries are verified
- Every national animal is cross-checked against at least one primary or official source before it is added, not inferred from a list.
- Conservation status is never guessed from an animal's name. Each entry is matched to a Red List assessment.
- Where a country's symbol is legendary or heraldic rather than a real species, the entry records that distinction instead of assigning it a biological status.
- The full dataset is available as a plain list on the animals directory so it can be checked in bulk.
Reusing this data
The dataset behind this site is free to use for teaching, classroom projects, quizzes and non-commercial research. You do not need to ask permission and there is no requirement to link back. If you are building something educational with it, we would appreciate a mention, but it is genuinely optional. If you find an error, please report it and it will be corrected.
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