Wildlife
Overview
For wildlife and nature photographers, the Wildlife module shows which species have recently been observed near your saved locations, their seasonal presence patterns, and detailed species profiles.
Data is sourced from GBIF.
Accessing Wildlife
Environment tab → Wildlife
Selecting a Location
Tap the location name at the top and choose one of your saved locations with a location type of Wildlife. The module fetches recent sightings within about 5 km of it.
If the screen can’t show species, it says why, with Choose a Location:
| Message | Means |
|---|---|
| Not a Wildlife Location | The chosen location’s type isn’t Wildlife |
| Loading Species | Records are still arriving |
| GBIF has no records within about 5 km of … | Nothing has been recorded near there |
Species List
A scrollable list of all species recently observed nearby, grouped by class:
- Birds
- Mammals
- Reptiles
- Amphibians
- Insects
Filter by class using the chips at the top.
Each species row shows:
- Common name
- Scientific name
- Its class, in plain English — “Birds” rather than “Aves”
- A mark when a field guide is available
The Enhanced chip shows only species with a field guide. Search finds a species by name.
Species Detail View
Tapping a species opens its profile:
Header Species name (common and scientific), and its taxonomy as chips — class, order, family.
Field Guide Description of the species, habitat, and behaviour — helps you understand where and how to find it for photography. It’s marked Written on this device by Apple Intelligence; tap that line to read how field guides are made.
Seasonality A 12-month chart of how present and how active the species is in each month, with the year in words beneath it — “Summer visitor, April to September. Most active May to June.”
If a field guide reads wrong, choose Regenerate Field Guide from the More menu (⋯) to write it again.
Field Guides
A species without a field guide yet shows a banner — “Writing a field guide for Eurasian Oystercatcher…” — while Apex Lucis writes one. This is a background process and, depending on the power of your device, might take some time the first couple of times you create Wildlife locations. Enhancement is only performed once per species, so if a species has already been enriched for one location, any other location where it turns up shares the same enriched profile immediately.
If Apple Intelligence isn’t available on your device, or isn’t turned on, the banner says so — the species and their records are all still there, just without a field guide. Turn it on in Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri.
Generated field guides may not always be accurate.