Sources

Every fact on animals.im was checked against one of the sources below before it went up. Where a figure is disputed we say so; where we couldn’t check something, it isn’t here.

Wikipedia articles were used as a first source and cross-checked against primary organisations where possible (IUCN, AmphibiaWeb, Manx Wildlife Trust, Manx BirdLife, the Isle of Man Government). Figures change — species counts especially — so treat numbers as “as of October 2026”.

• amphibiaweb.org/amphibian/speciesnums.html 1 claim
• Wikipedia: African bush elephant 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Animal 5 claims
• Wikipedia: Annelid 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Arctic tern 2 claims
• Wikipedia: Arthropod 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Aurelia aurita 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Axolotl 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Ballaugh Curraghs 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Basking shark 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Bee hummingbird 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Beetle 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Binomial nomenclature 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Bird 2 claims
• Wikipedia: Blue whale 2 claims
• Wikipedia: Brown-throated sloth 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Cheetah 2 claims
• Wikipedia: Chordate 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Cnidaria 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Common ostrich 2 claims
• Wikipedia: Common swift 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Earthworm 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Eastern blue-tongued lizard 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Echinoderm 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Emperor penguin 1 claim
• Wikipedia: European hedgehog 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Fish 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Galápagos tortoise 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Giraffe 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Goldfish 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Greenland shark 2 claims
• Wikipedia: Hippopotamus 1 claim
• Wikipedia: IUCN Red List 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Isle of Man 2 claims
• Wikipedia: Komodo dragon 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Kākāpō 1 claim
• Wikipedia: List of common misconceptions about science, technology, and mathematics 11 claims
• Wikipedia: Living Planet Index 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Loaghtan 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Mammal 2 claims
• Wikipedia: Mantis shrimp 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Manx shearwater 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Mollusca 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Naked mole-rat 2 claims
• Wikipedia: Ocean quahog 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Octopus 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Peregrine falcon 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Platypus 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Red-billed chough 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Red-necked wallaby 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Reptile 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Sponge 2 claims
• Wikipedia: Stag beetle 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Starfish 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Tardigrade 3 claims
• Wikipedia: Taxonomy (biology) 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Tuatara 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Turritopsis dohrnii 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Viviparous lizard 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Wandering albatross 1 claim
• Wikipedia: Western honey bee 1 claim
• genomics.senescence.info/species/ 1 claim
• mammal.org.uk/position-statements/red-squirrel-introduction-to-the-isle-of-man 1 claim
• manxbirdlife.im/ 1 claim
• manxbirdlife.im/conservation-project/isle-of-man-chough-census-2025/ 1 claim
• manxbirdlife.im/conservation-project/isle-of-man-hen-harrier-breeding-census-2022/ 2 claims
• manxnationalheritage.im/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Bibliographies-Manx-natural-history.pdf 2 claims
• mwdw.net/codes-of-conducts/ 1 claim
• www.gov.im/categories/home-and-neighbourhood/emergency-services/coastguard/isle-of-man-coastal-code/ 3 claims
• www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-countryside-code/the-countryside-code-advice-for-countryside-visitors 1 claim
• www.ipbes.net/news/Media-Release-Global-Assessment 1 claim
• www.iucnredlist.org/ 2 claims
• www.manxpeat.org/flora-fauna/mammals 2 claims
• www.mwt.im/news/keeping-it-manx 1 claim
• www.mwt.im/news/seals-sake-and-yours 1 claim
• www.mwt.im/sites/default/files/2024-08/Manx%20Shearwater.pdf 1 claim
• www.mwt.im/state-nature-2024-land-mammals 6 claims
• www.mwt.im/where-see-whales-dolphins-and-sharks 2 claims

Lifespan data for Higher or Lower comes from AnAge, the database of animal ageing and longevity. Photographs are listed on the credits page.

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