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Search Tips

Here are some general tips to help you get more precise results in GAA.

	Beginning a Search	Search by Threat Type
	Search by Name	Search by Biogeographic Realm
	Search by Taxonomy	Search by Location
	Search by Red List Status	Viewing Your Criteria
	Search by Habitat Type	Changing Your Criteria

Beginning a Search

1. From the home page, click Search
2. From here, scroll to Name, Taxonomy, Redlist Status , Habitat Type, Threat Type, Biogeographic Realm , or Location (You can search by one or any combination of these in any order.)

Note: When you use more than one word for a Name, or when you choose more than one selection in the Habitat Type, Threat Type, Biogeographic Realm, or Location searches, you will need to choose between AND and OR. Each choice will return different results. AND means that a record must include all selected choices to be a part of the search results, but OR means that a record must include at least one of the choices but may include any of them.

All species are searchable by their scientific and English common names. You can use part of a scientific name or part of an English common name, but you cannot use a combination of parts of the scientific and common name in the same search.

Example:

To search for Rana iberica (Iberian Frog)

Note: These are only samples of correct searches.

Punctuation for names of amphibians can affect your search results. If you want to find all variations of punctuation with your term in the data, check the ignore punctuation box. If you want to find only the punctuation you use in your term, uncheck the ignore punctuation box.

Example for a search using blue:

Ignore punctuation WITH a check:

• Blue Poison Frog
• Blue-bellied Poison Frog
• Red-and-blue Poison Frog
• Blue Mountains Tree Frog
• Blue Ridge Two-lined Salamander
• Any record that includes the phrase : blue

Ignore punctuation WITHOUT a check will find only the following from the above list :

• Blue Poison Frog
• Blue Mountains Tree Frog
• Blue Ridge Two-lined Salamander
• Any record that has blue as a whole word, without hyphens, slashes, or other punctuation.

Wildcards

If you do not know an element's full name or correct spelling, type the part of the name you do know and an asterisk ( * ). The asterisk will hold the place of an undetermined number of spaces. Changing the asterisk's place will change your results. You can also use a wildcard alone in a search.

Examples (using a common name search):

• amfrog will find no records
• *amfrog under Name will retrieve White-Lipped Fo amfrog.
• am*frog will retrieve Am azonian Horned Frog, Am erican White Lipped Frog, Amami Tip-nosed Frog, and Am erican Bull frog.

• a*f*g will retrieve Golden Arrow Poison Fro g, Armoured Fro g, West African Rubber Fro g, and 28 other species in addition to the species retrieved for am*frog.

AND/OR for Name searches:

AND is the default. For example:

• Jamaican snoring will find one record for a frog with this scientific and common name: Osteopilus crucialis or Jamaican Snoring Frog.
• Jamaican OR snoring will find amphibians that have Jamaican or snoring in their common name, which includes two records: Osteopilus crucialis, or Jamaican Snoring Frog, and Osteopilus brunneus , or Jamaican Laughing Frog.

Practice Name searches:

1. Under Name, type the scientific or English common name of an amphibian.
2. Click
• Scientific for only scientific names
• Common for only English common names
• Either for either scientific OR English common names.
3. Click Search Now to retrieve all records that match the criteria, or add other criteria.
4. View the results.

Search for an amphibian group, such as salamanders and newts, or Caudata, even if you do not know a full name. Start a name search at the highest group, or jump down through several subgroups.

1. Under Name, type a name if you want to search for particular amphibians within a group.
2. Scroll or click to Taxonomy.
3. Click the down arrow next to Class: Amphibia (Anura, Caudata and Gymnophiona) to show subsequent groups.
4. Click the selection you want in each subgroup until you reach the group or species that you want to retrieve.
5. Click Search Now to retrieve all records that match your criteria.
6. View the results.

Note: You can search by class only or you can choose taxonomic order, family and scientific name. The lower you go in the taxonomy, the fewer species you will retrieve.

1. Under Name, type a name if you want to search for particular amphibians within a group.
2. Scroll or click to Taxonomy.
3. Type the name of the group you want in the box next to Find Group Below.
4. Click the selection you want in each subgroup until you reach the one that you want to retrieve.
5. Click Search Now to retrieve all the records that match your criteria.
6. View the results.

AND/OR for Taxonomy searches:

NOT APPLICABLE. You can only search for species in one active group at a time.

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1. Under Red List Status, choose the statuses that you want to include in your search. For a complete explanation of the codes see the 2001 IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria.
2. Click Search Now to retrieve all records that match your criteria.
3. View the results.

AND/OR for Red List Status searches:

NOT APPLICABLE. Red List status categories are mutually exclusive (i.e. a species can only have one Red List status), therefore, it is not possible to do an AND search for this criterion.

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1. Under Habitat Type, click each habitat where you want to search for amphibians. View the authority file with all of the habitat types at http://www.redlist.org/info/major_habitats.html.

Note: Only a subset of all habitat types are searchable.

1. Click Search Now to retrieve all amphibian species associated with those habitats.
2. View the results.

AND/OR for Habitat Type searches:

OR is the default. For example:

1. Forest AND Grassland will find records for amphibians that occur only in BOTH Habitat Types.
2. Forest OR Grassland will find records for species that occur in either Forest or Grassland Habitat Types or both.

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Search by Threat Type

1. Under Threat Type, click each threat type for which you want to search for amphibians. View the authority file with all of the threat types at http://www.redlist.org/info/major_threats.html.

Note: Only a subset of all threat types are searchable.

1. Click Search Now to retrieve all amphibian species affected by those threat types.
2. View the results.

OR is the default. For example:

1. Extraction AND Pollution will find records for amphibians that are affected by BOTH Threat Types.
2. Extraction OR Pollution will find records for species that are affected by either Extraction or Pollution Threat Types or both.

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Search by Biogeographic Realm

1. Under Biogeographic Realm, click each realm where you want to search for amphibians.
2. Click Search Now to retrieve all amphibian species recorded in those realms.
3. View the results.

AND/OR for Biogeographic Realm searches:

OR is the default. For example:

1. Afrotropical AND Oceanic will find records for amphibians that occur only in BOTH Biogeographic Realms.
2. Afrotropical OR Oceanic will find records for species that occur in either Afrotropical or Oceanic Biogeographic Realms or both.

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Search by Location

1. Under Location, click each region, country and political entity where you want to search for amphibians.
2. Click Search Now to retrieve all amphibian species recorded in those locations.
3. View the results.

AND/OR for Location searches:

OR is the default. For example:

1. Argentina AND Germany will find records for amphibians that occur only in BOTH locations.
2. Argentina OR Germany will find records for species that occur in either Argentina or Germany or both.

You can search for a group of amphibians by any combination of Name, Taxonomy, IUCN Redlist Status, Habitat Type, Threat Type, Biogeographic Ream, or Location.

1. Under Taxonomy, click on Order: Anura (Frogs and Toads)
2. Go to IUCN Redlist Status and click on CR: Critically Endangered
3. Finally to further refine your search go to Locationand click on the region: East Asia
4. Click Search Now to retrieve all records that match the criteria.
5. View the results. You will see that 5 records match the criteria.

Viewing and Changing Search Criteria

When you add search criteria and execute a search, the criteria will appear in your browser as GAA conducts the search. They also will always appear at the end of the results page.

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Viewing Your Criteria

To view your criteria,

• As you build a search, click Check Criteria.
• On the results page, click the “ your criteria ” linkin the table header or scroll to the bottom.

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Changing Your Criteria

If you want to change the search criteria after you view the results, you can start with a new search or modify the previous one.

From the results page,

• Click New Search to create a new search starting with a search page.

Click Change Criteria to return to the previous page with your search criteria still in place. Then, edit criteria as needed.

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