WorldWildMap answers a single, practical question: what can I realistically encounter here, now, and how do I improve my chances?
We combine biodiversity observation data, seasonal patterns, and habitat context into something a photographer or traveller can actually use in the field. The map is the hero — everything else supports it.
Encounter zones are modelled from openly licensed occurrence records published through GBIF — real sightings, contributed by researchers and naturalists, aggregated onto a grid. That makes them a record of where people have looked and found something, which is not the same as where an animal is. Every zone carries its confidence level, its sample size, and when it was last recalculated, and likelihood is never presented as scientific truth.
Some species (rhinos, nesting raptors, vulnerable reptiles) must never have their precise locations exposed publicly. WorldWildMap supports private exact coordinates, generalised public coordinates, configurable obscuring radius, delayed publication, and completely hidden locations. This is not a feature. It is a rule.
No cookies, ours or anyone else's. We measure how the atlas is used with Pulse, our own analytics, running in its cookieless mode: it writes nothing to your device and gives you no identifier, so there is nothing to consent to and no banner to dismiss. What it records is the page you viewed, where you arrived from, a rough idea of device and language, and clicks on a handful of marked buttons. Never anything you typed, and never a coordinate. Records are kept for 365 days.
Your browser holds one scroll position so the back button returns you to the right place, and it is discarded when you close the tab. If you create an account, your sign-in session is stored in the browser so you stay signed in between visits; signing out removes it.