About A-Z Animals

Updated: November 16, 2023
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A-Z-Animals believes that if people are educated about the natural world they will better care for the earth and all species that occupy it. We aim to educate, amuse, and inform readers with incredible content about animals, weather events, plants, and local news that is relevant to you.

We hold ourselves to the highest standards of careful research and accuracy so that all readers can trust the material found here represents the most modern understanding of a given species ranging from scientific name to diet, habitat, and more. We also present an animal’s conservation status whenever possible so that readers can take action to protect a species.

Our Team

A-Z Animals is brought to life by a team 50+ of animal-loving experts, editors, and dedicated writers. Meet some of them below!

A-Z Animals Editorial team

Ann-Marie Fleming

Ann-Marie Fleming

Anne-Marie is an Editor at A-Z Animals. She is also the Founder and CEO of Dog Quality, a company obsessed with creating products that improve the quality of life for senior and special needs dogs and the families that care for them. While she has a soft spot for dogs, especially the ones with challenges, she truly love all animals. Her areas of expertise include pet care, marketing, and small business.
Christian Drerup

Christian Drerup

Christian is an Editor at A-Z Animals. She once raised an orphaned squirrel named Itchy (who was successfully released into the wild!) and currently parents a Golden Doodle named Pizzly Bear. She likes horror movies, kitty cats, psychology books, and swimming in the ocean!
Cindy McCain

Cindy McCain

Cindy McCain is an Editor at A-Z Animals, writer, English professor, and travel blogger. She once lived on a Kentucky horse farm and prefers seeing world from the back of a horse, mule, or camel. She enjoys gardening and exploring Tennessee trails with her yellow lab Ella.
Jennifer Boozer

Jennifer Boozer

Jennifer is an Editor at A-Z Animals. She was born in South Louisiana and spent a great deal of time learning about fish, alligators, turtles, nutria, and anything else living and breathing in the swamps. Throughout childhood, she was fortunate to care for goats, turtles, rabbits, birds, ferrets, mice, and, of course, cats and dogs. Jennifer is a cat wrangler to four cats: Charlotte Toe Beans, Prudence Rose, Stevie Rey and Floyd.

A-Z Animals Contributing Authors

Drew Wood

Drew Wood

Drew Wood is a writer at A-Z Animals focusing on mammals, geography, and world cultures. Drew has worked in research and writing for over 20 years and holds a Masters in Foreign Affairs (1992) and a Doctorate in Religion (2009). A resident of Nebraska, Drew enjoys Brazilian jiu-jitsu, movies, and being an emotional support human to four dogs. Read More
Angie Menjivar

Angie Menjivar

Angie Menjivar is a writer at A-Z-Animals primarily covering pets, wildlife, and the human spirit. She has 14 years of experience, holds a Bachelor's degree in psychology, and continues her studies into human behavior, working as a copywriter in the mental health space. She resides in North Carolina, where she's fallen in love with thunderstorms and uses them as an excuse to get extra cuddles from her three cats. Read More
August Croft

August Croft

August Croft is a writer at A-Z Animals where their primary focus is on astrology, symbolism, and gardening. August has been writing a variety of content for over 4 years and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Theater from Southern Oregon University, which they earned in 2014. They are currently working toward a professional certification in astrology and chart reading. A resident of Oregon, August enjoys playwriting, craft beer, and cooking seasonal recipes for their friends and high school sweetheart. Read More
Claire Wilson

Claire Wilson

Claire Wilson is a writer at A-Z Animals where her primary focus is on reptiles, travel, and historic places and landmarks. Claire holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, which she earned in 2010. A resident of Wisconsin, Claire enjoys hiking, visiting parks, and biking nature trails. Read More
Kristin Hitchcock

Kristin Hitchcock

Kristin is a writer at A-Z Animals primarily covering dogs, cats, fish, and other pets. She has been an animal writer for seven years, writing for top publications on everything from chinchilla cancer to the rise of designer dogs. She currently lives in Tennessee with her cat, dogs, and two children. When she isn't writing about pets, she enjoys hiking and crocheting. Read More
Kyle Glatz

Kyle Glatz

Kyle Glatz is a writer at A-Z-Animals where his primary focus is on geography and mammals. Kyle has been writing for researching and writing about animals and numerous other topics for 10 years, and he holds a Bachelor's Degree in English and Education from Rowan University. A resident of New Jersey, Kyle enjoys reading, writing, and playing video games. Read More
Marisa Higgins

Marisa Higgins

Dr. Marisa Higgins is a writer at A-Z Animals where her primary focus is on travel, places to visit, and fun activities. Marisa holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and French, a Master of Arts in English, and a Ph.D. in English, and she's spent the past decade teaching, writing, and researching. She lives in Knoxville, TN with her husband, and their Beagle-Chihuahua, Rumi, and cat, Rory. Read More
Mike Edmisten

Mike Edmisten

Mike is a writer at A-Z Animals where his primary focus is on geography, agriculture, and marine life. A graduate of Cincinnati Christian University and a resident of Cincinnati, OH, Mike is deeply passionate about the natural world. In his free time, he, his wife, and their two sons love the outdoors, especially camping and exploring US National Parks. Read More
Nixza Gonzalez

Nixza Gonzalez

Nixza Gonzalez is a writer at A-Z Animals primarily covering topics like travel, geography, plants, and marine animals. She has over six years of experience as a content writer and holds an Associate of Arts Degree. A resident of Florida, Nixza loves spending time outdoors exploring state parks and tending to her container garden. Read More
Patrick MacFarland

Patrick MacFarland

Patrick Macfarland is a writer at A-Z Animals primarily covering travel, geography, and history. Patrick has been writing for more than 10 years. In the past, he has been a teacher and a political candidate. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from SDSU and a Master's Degree in European Union Studies from CIFE. From San Diego, California, Patrick loves to travel and try new recipes to cook. Read More
Sarah Feaster

Sarah Feaster

Sarah Feaster is a writer at A-Z Animals where her primary focus is on outdoor recreation and dogs. A 2009 graduate of Lycoming College, Sarah is a creative and strategic marketing professional with more than a decade of experience crafting captivating content. When she's not in front of her computer, Sarah is typically losing herself in the Pennsylvania woods or enjoying the sunshine from her SUP - but either way, she's always accompanied by her two dogs. Read More
Sharon Parry

Sharon Parry

Dr Sharon Parry is a writer at A-Z animals where her primary focus is on dogs, animal behavior, and research. Sharon holds a PhD from Leeds University, UK which she earned in 1998 and has been working as a science writer for the last 15 years. A resident of Wales, UK, Sharon loves taking care of her spaniel named Dexter and hiking around coastlines and mountains. Read More

Our pledge to you

A-Z Animals was founded on three guiding principles: accurate content you can trust, spreading knowledge on the animal kingdom, and giving back

A-Z Animals Team

Today, more than 30,000 species are threatened with extinction, and thousands would already be lost without tireless conservation efforts. Knowing that the first step toward conservation is spreading knowledge of the incredible animals species across our planet, A-Z Animals was founded in 2008 to offer an online encyclopedic resource across animals of all kinds.

Our pledge to you simple: we built A-Z Animals to be a resource you can trust. That means every day we strive for accuracy through an editorial process that emphasizes primary research and keeping all information up-to-date and accurate.

Below, we’ve outlined more details on our guiding principles. Whether citing A-Z Animals in research or just learning more about the animal kingdom that surrounds us, we want to ensure that you know the values that drive us.

1.) Accuracy

Every Animals A-Z page begins ONLY with vetted, encyclopedic resources. From there we layer on primary research, and have developed an editorial process for reviewing content to ensure its as up-to-date and accurate as possible.

  • The Animals A-Z editorial team maintains a library of more than 100 encyclopedias and other definitive guides across the animal kingdom that forms the basis of our research library.
  • Every article we publish begins with this research library. While the Internet has made knowledge freely available, that also comes with the downside of information often being inaccurate. Our goal is that you can trust the information across A-Z Animals as vetted, and sourced from encyclopedias, biologists, and researchers across the world.
  • At the bottom of each article, you’ll find our research cited, with details on the different encyclopedias, research, and publications we used as source material.
  • Our editorial team has more than 30 years of experience directly managing editorial teams across some of the world’s largest websites.
  • Finally, while we strive for accuracy, we also understand that mistakes happen. If you see an error, please contact us and we’ll do our best to correct it in a timely fashion.

We’ve designed A-Z Animals to have engaging content that brings forward the most interesting aspects of the kingdom.

2.) Spreading Knowledge on the Animal Kingdom

  • With more than one million species on Earth, the animal kingdom is all about discovery!
  • For that reason, we focus on bringing out the most interesting aspects of each animal in addition to encyclopedic details such as appearance, taxonomy, and behavior.
  • By using a diversity of sources – many of which are not available online – we aim to deliver facts and research on animals that are simply unavailable across other resources online.

3.) Giving back

We’re focused on giving back to causes that support animal conservation efforts and education across the world.

  • Extinct is As of 2020, more than 30,000 animals are threatened with extinction, which is about 27% of all assessed species.
  • Within each page on A-Z Animals, we focus on the most up-to-date conservation status, with a special focus on the threats that face each animal.
  • In addition, we try to call attention to conservation efforts that may aid in the survival of species. Without dedicated conservation work across the 20th and 21st centuries, thousands of more animals would simply be extinct today.
  • A-Z Animals is dedicated to giving back to conservation efforts, and we’re currently designing new programs to support some of our favorite programs directly!

Ownership

A-Z Animals (a-z-animals.com) is owned and operated by Flywheel Publishing, LLC, a Colorado company with offices in Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Tennessee. Flywheel Publishing is a private, self-funding company with no outside investors.

Affiliate Disclosure

Some of the articles on A-Z Animals (a-z-animals.com) refer readers to products available for purchase on other websites, such as Amazon. In some cases, A-Z Animals earns a small commission for those purchases.

While it does not raise the price for you, these commissions help support our site and allow us to continue researching and writing great content for you.

Awards

Editor's Choice
Awesome Library
A-Z Animals would like to say a huge thank you to the Awesome Library for giving A-Z Animals an Editor’s Choice Award!

thegoodwebguide.co.uk
thegoodwebguide.co.uk
A-Z Animals has been featured on the thegoodwebguide.co.uk as a recommended site!