IDentifyIt Species

The IDentifyIt Species Tool is a practical, easy-to-use identification guide that works as an elimination key. It was created to assist customs officials, law enforcement officers, border police and Environmental Management Inspectors (EMI’s) with the identification of South African TOPS and CITES-listed species, thereby enabling better regulation and monitoring of the local and international trade in these threatened and endangered species

This free mobile app is designed to lead you through a series of interactive steps, using photographs and easily observable features, to assist you with quick identification. The tool also includes fact sheets containing important information such as conservation status, identifying features, geographic location as well as similar-looking species.

The IDentifyIt Species Tool currently consists of 140 CITES-listed South African plant and animal species, their look-alike species as well as traded parts and derivatives. The next phase of this project will see another 300 + species, including amphibians, birds, fish, invertebrates, mammals and reptiles, added to the Species ID Tool.

The IDentifyIt Species Tool project has also developed the IDentifyIt Cycads Tool which has been designed to assist with the identification of South African Encephalartos Species.

The project is a collaboration between the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and TRAFFIC, the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network, a strategic alliance of WWF-World Wide Fund for Nature and IUCN-The World Conservation Union. The project was sponsored by NORAD, SANBI and the Mazda Wildlife Fund.