ARKive

ARKive – Images of Life on Earth
Type of site
Encyclopedia
Successor(s)Wildscreen ARK
Created byWildscreen
Launched20 May 2003 (2003-05-20)
Current statusArchived
Wildscreen ARK
FormerlyARKive
Created byWildscreen
URLwildscreenark.org
LaunchedFebruary 2024

ARKive was a global initiative with the mission of "promoting the conservation of the world's threatened species, through the power of wildlife imagery", which it did by locating and gathering films, photographs and audio recordings of the world's species into a centralised digital archive. Its priority was the completion of audio-visual profiles for the c. 17,000 species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The project was an initiative of Wildscreen, a UK-registered educational charity, based in Bristol. The technical platform was created by Hewlett-Packard, as part of the HP Labs' Digital Media Systems research programme.

ARKive had the backing of leading conservation organisations, including BirdLife International, Conservation International, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the United Nations' World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), as well as leading academic and research institutions, such as the Natural History Museum; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; and the Smithsonian Institution. It was a member of the Institutional Council of the Encyclopedia of Life.

Two ARKive layers for Google Earth, featuring endangered species and species in the Gulf of Mexico were produced by Google Earth Outreach. The first of these was launched in April 2008 by Wildscreen's Patron, Sir David Attenborough.

Due to lack of funding, the website was closed on 15 February 2019 and the media collection taken offline. Its successor, Wildscreen ARK (https://wildscreenark.org/), was launched in February 2024.