Editorial Policy

Last updated: November 15, 2026

Who writes our articles

Articles are published under the name WildFacts Editorial Team. Drafts are written with the help of AI writing tools, then checked against their cited sources and by automated checks before they are published. We do not invent authors, credentials, field trips, sightings or personal stories.

How we choose sources

  1. Government science agencies: NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
  2. Museums and universities: the Smithsonian, Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan) and university research pages.
  3. Peer-reviewed research and aquarium animal guides (such as Monterey Bay Aquarium) for details the first two do not cover.

For conservation status we use the IUCN Red List category name and link to the Red List; we do not copy Red List content. Encyclopedias written by anyone, social media, forums and question-and-answer sites are not cited as evidence.

How we handle numbers

  • Sizes, weights and lifespans are given as ranges with the source named.
  • Figures for animals in the wild and in human care (aquariums, zoos, homes) are kept separate.
  • When good sources disagree, we say so and show both.
  • If we cannot verify a number, we leave it out rather than estimate it.

Dangerous animals

Articles about whether an animal is dangerous use real incident statistics and explain the actual risk calmly. We do not write "who would win" fight stories, and we do not show predation, injury or dead animals in photos.

Photos and illustrations

Animal pages use real photos that are in the public domain or licensed under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA. We credit the photographer, license and source under each photo and on our photo credits page, note when a photo has been cropped, and say "in captivity" for animals photographed in human care. Home-page illustrations are made with AI image tools and checked for anatomy; they are not photos. Diagrams are drawn by us from cited sources.

Opinions

Each article ends with an "Our Take" section. It is clearly an opinion based on the sources cited.

Updates and corrections

The "Updated" date only changes for substantive edits. Factual corrections are listed on ourcorrections page; to report an error, contact us.

Advertising and affiliate links

Ads and affiliate links never decide what we write. Any tour or product suggestion is matched to the animal and region, never random, and we never claim we took a tour or tested a product. Pages with affiliate links say so at the top. Details are in ouraffiliate disclosure.