ARKive: Images of Life on Earth

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• Learn more about animals, biology, ecology, environmental science, and natural history.

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ARKive, a non-profit organization of Wildscreen, “is the Noah’s Ark for the Internet era.” This website is a digital library of films, photographs and associated recordings of species.There are three main areas in this site that are particularly useful.

ARKive Education provides a plethora of educational resources for educators focusing on animals, habitats, biodiversity, endangered species, and much more. Find project ideas, lesson plans, and support materials.ARKive Species provides an exhaustive list of globally endangered and protected species, a list British endangered and protected species, and information about corals. The lists are hotlinked to descriptions of the animals and several images. At some point, movies will also be available.Finally, visit ARKive planet, designed for a younger audience, this section is interactive and includes fun animals facts, habitat information, creature features, and games.

Life on earth is threatened by increasing habitat destruction, and the current extinction crisis means that more species of plants and animals will be lost forever. Like the Ark of the Bible, the ARKive is determined to save and protect species by raising public awareness through accessible scientific and historical records which provide an opportunity to easily explore environmental diversity.From the front page simply select the link to Species to locate the collection of records you are interested in exploring. The Globally Endangered Chapter includes records for mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, plants, algae and fungi. You may also search or browse by common name or scientific name. The actual records for each species includes a variety of media — some video, many still images, and some audio. You have a variety of viewing choices — based upon your need or connection speed you can select the higher quality or faster-loading movie format or image resolution. As this collection grows, efforts are being made to locate and make available moving footage, still images and sound recordings (where appropriate), and to compile a complete profile of the species’ characteristic behavior and appearance. Priority is given to the more than 12,000 animals and plants listed as threatened on the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Red Lists of Threatened Species. Like the animals and plants themselves, current audio visual records of these species are scattered widely and available in such a variety of formats that without a centralized, concerted effort, the likelihood of their being useful or accessible is small. Locating, sorting, cataloguing and copying the key records of species, including images, video and sound recordings, is the goal of this comprehensive audio-visual digital library.ARKive education is the parent and teacher entry way to the digitally preserved collection of endangered species profiles. Lesson plans (Adobe Acrobat Reader required) on topics from Animal Adaptations to Data Collection and Interpretation, are high quality, integrating the resources from the website and recommending related field work. Activities include cross-curricular ideas as well as general documents to improve field work. Support materials are in-depth background notes on various habitats and are written at a higher level for use by educators or secondary students. Currently the educational resources are only aligned to the UK National Curriculum since this educational material is being developed in the United Kingdom, but the hope is to reach a world-wide education audience in time.