About Daniel Silver

With over 200 different, easy-to-read fact pages about many different kinds of animals, this website provides a concise overview of each species, complete with information about conservation status, natural habitat, fun facts, and more.

I originally started compiling animal information in late December 2009 during my junior year of high school, as a month-long school project. I enjoyed it so much that I kept going.

My name is Daniel Silver and I was born & raised in the Chicago area, which is lucky to have many amazing animal institutions. These include the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum of Natural History, Brookfield Zoo, the Wildlife Discovery Center in Lake Forest, and others. With all of these resources so close by, I’ve been lucky enough to become quite familiar with both the institutions and the animals associated with them. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Behavior, Ecology and Conservation from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, where I graduated in 2016. I have worked at the Brookfield Zoo, the Shedd Aquarium, the Wildlife Discovery Center, and currently act as a Zoo Ambassador at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

This blog can be searched in several ways. You can simply type an animal into the search bar, or you can even search by species.

I use many different sources for my research. Along with my vast library of books and my personal experience, I consistently use the following:

Wikipedia
Animal Diversity Web
National Geographic (online & print)
National Zoo website
Smithsonian Animal-David Burnie & Don E Wilson
I use many others depending on species; please contact me for specifics