Handeware

Field Guide

Animals and plants, one card each. Swipe across, tap a card to turn it over, then scroll down its back. Try Look closer on a front, spin a globe, and lift the question on a park sign.

Life on the planet

Every species in this guide, placed where it has been recorded. Drag to spin, tap a dot to meet it.

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Contents

Mammals

47Chapter 1Mammals33Chapter 2Primates and carnivores28Chapter 3Hoofed animals23Chapter 4Small mammals11Chapter 5Whales and seals

Birds

32Chapter 6Birds28Chapter 7Songbirds26Chapter 8Waterbirds26Chapter 9Hawks, owls and parrots

Reptiles and amphibians

20Chapter 10Reptiles and amphibians22Chapter 11Snakes and lizards16Chapter 12Turtles and frogs

Fish and sea life

22Chapter 13Fish and sea life15Chapter 14Freshwater fish13Chapter 15Ocean fish8Chapter 16Sharks and rays16Chapter 17Sea creatures

Insects, spiders and crawlers

21Chapter 18Insects, spiders and crawlers10Chapter 19Butterflies and moths8Chapter 20Bees, ants and wasps12Chapter 21Beetles and bugs11Chapter 22Spiders and crawlers

Plants

31Chapter 23Trees and wild plants19Chapter 24More trees24Chapter 25Wildflowers and strange plants19Chapter 26Food and useful plants24Chapter 27More food plants

Fungi and lichens

10Chapter 28Fungi and lichens10Chapter 29More fungi

Start here

Snow leopard
Mammalia › Carnivora › Felidae

Snow leopard

Panthera uncia

Broad furred paws and a tail nearly as long as its body let it chase prey down cliffs far above the tree line.

3,000+ mwhere it lives
80–105 cmits tail
12countries
Arctic tern
Aves › Charadriiformes › Laridae

Arctic tern

70,900 km a year

Pole to pole and back. It lives through two summers a year and sees more daylight than any other animal.

Atlas moth

Atlas moth

Attacus atlas
Insecta › Lepidoptera › Saturniidae
Adults cannot eat. They live for a week or two on fat stored as a caterpillar.
Sperm whale
SurfaceSunlight endsLast light2 km
Mammalia › Cetacea › Physeteridae

Sperm whale

Physeter macrocephalus

Dives past 2,000 m on one breath and hunts squid in the dark. It has the largest brain of any animal known.

Saltwater crocodile
Reptilia › Crocodylia › Crocodylidae

Saltwater crocodile

The largest living reptile. A 4.59 m crocodile bit with 16,414 newtons, the highest force measured in a laboratory.

Venus flytrap

Venus flytrap

Dionaea muscipula

It shuts only if touched twice within about twenty seconds, so raindrops do not fool it. It grows wild only near Wilmington, North Carolina.

Giant sequoia
Pinopsida › Pinales › Cupressaceae

Giant sequoia

Sequoiadendron giganteum
  1. A First Olympic Games, 776 BCE
  2. B Year 1
  3. C Magna Carta, 1215
  4. D People walk on the Moon, 1969
A real slice from a younger tree. Letters mark where those years would fall.
Titan arum
Liliopsida › Alismatales › Araceae

Titan arum

Over three metres tall, smelling of rotting meat to bring in carrion beetles and flesh flies. The flowers last a day or so.

Up to 10 years from seed to the first bloom
African bush elephant
Mammalia › Proboscidea › Elephantidae

African bush elephant

Loxodonta africana

The largest land animal alive. A grown bull stands about 3.2 m at the shoulder and weighs about 6 tonnes.

22 monthspregnancy
150 kgfood a day
70–75years at most
Western honey bee

Western honey bee

Apis mellifera
Insecta › Hymenoptera › Apidae
A colony in midsummer can hold 40,000 to 80,000 bees, almost all of them sisters.
Common sunflower

Common sunflower

Helianthus annuus

The “flower” is many tiny florets packed in spirals, usually 34 one way and 55 the other. Young heads follow the sun.

English oak
Magnoliopsida › Fagales › Fagaceae

English oak

Quercus robur
  1. A Magna Carta, 1215
  2. B Columbus crosses the Atlantic, 1492
  3. C American independence, 1776
  4. D People walk on the Moon, 1969
A real slice from a younger tree. Letters mark where those years would fall.
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What is real here

Every photograph and every outline of a plant or animal comes from a real, openly licensed image, credited at the bottom of its card, public domain first. Only plain charts are drawn. Every figure was checked against the sources named there. Some species figures differ between sources: where they did I used the government or scientific body first.

Globe dots are real recorded sightings from GBIF, clipped to the native range so zoos and gardens do not count. A few photos are of captive animals or garden plants, and the snow leopard is one of them.