Contact the Editors

All correspondence reaches the editors at a single address, [email protected]. There is no contact form, no phone line and no mailing address to publish. Listing details that do not exist would only waste a reader's time and send messages into a channel nobody watches, so the routes described below are the ones that actually work. Mail sent to that address is read by the people who write and check the pages.

Because everything arrives in one place, a subject line that names the purpose helps a message reach the right hands quickly. A note headed as a correction is treated differently from a general suggestion, and separating the two saves a round of clarifying questions. The channels below describe the categories that come up most often, what each is best used for, and which details make a message quicker to act on.

Reporting an error

Error reports are the most useful mail this site receives, and they are treated as ordinary editorial work rather than as complaints. The most actionable reports identify the page, quote the statement or figure in question, and say what appears to be wrong with it. If the same figure appears elsewhere on the site, mentioning that helps ensure a fix is applied everywhere rather than in one place.

No source is required to file a report. A note saying that a depth or a lifespan looks implausible gets the figure checked against the material cited on the page, which is the same verification any report receives. The corrections policy describes what happens after a report arrives and how confirmed changes are recorded and dated.

What the editors cannot help with

Some requests fall outside what a reference site can responsibly answer. Species identification from photographs or video is one of them: identification often depends on details that do not survive an image, and a confident guess from a compiled reference is worse than no answer. Local wildlife authorities, aquariums and university extension programs handle these questions properly.

Nothing on this site is safety guidance, and no advice is given about approaching, feeding, handling or diving with wild animals. Questions about an injured, stranded or entangled animal should go to the relevant government wildlife agency or a licensed rescue network immediately, not to an inbox that may not be read for a day.

Privacy requests

Requests concerning personal information, including access, deletion and the specific rights available to California residents, are handled through the same address. Marking a message clearly as a privacy request helps it reach the right process without delay, since it arrives in the same inbox as everything else. Requests are acknowledged and answered within the period the applicable law allows, and a reply is sent even where a request cannot be fulfilled.

Enough detail to locate any relevant records is needed before a request can be acted on, which usually means the address a message was sent from and roughly when. In some cases identity has to be verified before information is released or removed, and only what is needed for that purpose will be requested. The privacy policy describes what is collected, how long it is kept, and what a request can cover.

Honest expectations

This is a small operation, and mail is answered by people rather than by an automated system. Every message that includes a return address receives a reply, but replies are not instant and the queue lengthens when a page draws unusual attention. Corrections take priority over everything else, since an uncorrected error keeps misinforming readers while it waits.

Some messages receive a short answer. A question already covered by the editorial policy or the sources page is usually answered with a pointer to the relevant passage rather than a restatement of it, which is not a brush-off so much as the fastest route to the actual reasoning. Where a reply would repeat a published policy in weaker words, the policy is the better answer and the pointer arrives sooner.