# Animal Friends

> A free, source-backed animal encyclopedia and magazine helping young readers care about every animal.

## Core resources
- [Animal encyclopedia](https://animal-friends.club/animals): Species pages with photographs, facts, conservation information and sources.
- [Animal stories](https://animal-friends.club/blog): Long-form, cited features for readers aged 10–14.
- [Sources](https://animal-friends.club/sources): Source registry and evidence policy.

## Recent stories
- [Red Fox: The Twilight Neighbour with a Bushy Brush](https://animal-friends.club/blog/red-fox): Meet the red fox, Vulpes vulpes: a bright-eyed, adaptable canid that makes its living in forests, fields, farms, and sometimes surprisingly close to people.
- [Goats: The Bright-Eyed Climbers of the Farmyard](https://animal-friends.club/blog/domestic-goat): Meet Capra hircus, the curious, sure-footed herbivore whose day may include browsing shrubs, exploring a fence, or balancing where no one expects.
- [Raccoon: The Masked Night Neighbour with Remarkable Paws](https://animal-friends.club/blog/raccoon): Meet the raccoon, Procyon lotor: a ring-tailed, night-roaming mammal whose sensitive front paws help it explore woods, wetlands, and towns.
- [Plains Zebra: The Grassland Friend in a One-of-a-Kind Coat](https://animal-friends.club/blog/plains-zebra): Meet the plains zebra, a social grass-eater whose bold stripes, family bonds, and need for open African landscapes make every herd worth protecting.
- [Orcas: Ocean Families with Voices of Their Own](https://animal-friends.club/blog/orca): Meet the orca, also called the killer whale: the dolphin family’s largest member, a social hunter, and a remarkable neighbour in oceans around the world.
- [Cheetah: The Quiet Cat Built for a Brilliant Burst](https://animal-friends.club/blog/cheetah): Meet the cheetah, a slender spotted cat of open country whose breathtaking speed is only one part of its story.
- [Atlantic Salmon: The Fish That Finds Its Way Home](https://animal-friends.club/blog/atlantic-salmon): Follow an Atlantic salmon from a cool river to the open North Atlantic—and back again—in one of nature’s most astonishing return journeys.
- [Chicken Conversations: Meet the Clever Friends in the Flock](https://animal-friends.club/blog/domestic-chicken): Chickens are alert, social birds with friendships, family calls, and a lively way of exploring the world.
- [The European Garden Spider: A Wheel-Weaver at Work](https://animal-friends.club/blog/european-garden-spider): Meet the European garden spider, a patient orb-weaver whose pale cross and round silk web can turn an ordinary garden corner into a tiny theatre of nature.
- [Great White Sharks: The Ocean’s Powerful, Misunderstood Neighbours](https://animal-friends.club/blog/great-white-shark): Meet the great white shark, a warm-bodied ocean traveller with remarkable senses, a constantly renewing smile, and a vulnerable future.
- [The Laughing Kookaburra: A Big Voice in the Treetops](https://animal-friends.club/blog/laughing-kookaburra): Meet the laughing kookaburra, a large land-hunting kingfisher whose famous chorus rings through Australian woodland, parks and gardens.
- [Clownfish: The Tiny Reef Neighbour With a Stinging-Flower Home](https://animal-friends.club/blog/clownfish): Meet the clownfish, a bright reef fish whose closest neighbour is a sea anemone—and whose family life holds a remarkable surprise.
- [Axolotl: The Underwater Salamander With Feathery Gills](https://animal-friends.club/blog/axolotl): Meet the axolotl, a remarkable salamander of Mexico City’s waterways that keeps its gills, lives underwater, and needs clean canals to thrive.
- [Red Kangaroo: The Evening Hopper of Australia’s Open Country](https://animal-friends.club/blog/red-kangaroo): Meet the red kangaroo, the world’s largest marsupial: a powerful plant-eater whose remarkable journey begins as a jellybean-sized joey in a pouch.
- [Western Honey Bees: The Flower-Finding Friends of the Hive](https://animal-friends.club/blog/western-honey-bee): Meet Apis mellifera, the western honey bee: a small, striped insect whose busy colony life links flowers, food, and careful communication.

## Content principles
- Treat animals as feeling individuals, never villains or commodities.
- Prefer authoritative sources and preserve uncertainty.
- Clearly distinguish real photography from generated supporting illustrations.
- Encourage compassionate, plant-forward choices without shame or medical promises.