Every land animal and every bird is an individual that lives on the map for good, just for looking at, except that the birds following a ship boost it (see Bird boosts under Birds). Worked out from the data and the clocks alone, so every player sees much the same and nothing is saved. Till then there's none. About 2,500 land animals in 456 groups and some 16,500 birds in 2,500 colonies. A group's home away from its species' spot is only taken where all the ground it roams is land, so no herd wanders into the sea (southern India's elephants did).
Each is drawn from above at its size in the world (exaggerated so it reads, like the ships: an elephant 13.5 km, a penguin 4.5 km), growing and shrinking with the map, so they show once you're zoomed in (from about 3 px), on the full-color map only, not in locked regions; turned the way it's heading, stepping as it walks (a second drawing with its legs swapped, or a bird's wings), dimmed asleep.
Camels, giraffes, zebras, kangaroos, moose, reindeer and llamas just roam and bed down where they are. When its species is up (by day; lions, tigers, koalas and kiwis by night; kangaroos and moose at dusk and dawn, by the sun there) a group roams its range round its home from spot to spot at its walking pace (kmh), grazing and resting between, the young close by their mother; the rest of the time it's at its home (or bedded down where it last was), going and coming back as the day turns. Brown bears sleep the winter (December to March) in their caves, and polar bear mothers with cubs keep to their snow dens December to February: the den shows its z's. Reindeer go 4 degrees south for November to April and zebras 1.9 degrees north (the Serengeti to the Mara) for July to October, the herd walking there over 10 days.
Birds live in colonies at the ports: each port has its gulls (8, 12, 16 or 20 by its size band, 4 more at a hub, shared between up to three of the species whose ranges cover it, or the nearest), and up to 2 species of raptors (and an owl), 2 of cormorants, 3 of waders and 1 of sea ducks whose ranges cover it. Each colony's home is on the shore either side of its port (the same spots the waders use): a gull or cormorant colony at the water's edge, an eyrie, heronry, nest in the reeds or nest on the ground inland. A colony whose species' range only covers its port some months spends the rest at the nearest port its range covers then (or in its range there), flying between the two in a V (all its birds, along the shortest way round the globe) over the first 10 days of each stay; at the port it's visiting it's one of that port's birds. Seabirds nest in colonies at some of the ports in their range (30% of them; their numbers three times their follow count) and forage out to sea round them, gliding from spot to spot within 60% of their range (albatrosses 2,500 km, shearwaters 1,800, terns 350, pelicans 150, condors 300), and follow ships that pass. Each bird lives as a permanent map object: see Birds.
Movement goes by the life clock: calendar time at the game's speed, but never slower than 1x, so the wildlife carries on while the game's paused; when things happen (day and night, the seasons) goes by the calendar.
Click an animal for its group's popup: the species with its picture, its group ("A pride of 6 with a cub", "A mother with 2 cubs", "On its own"), what they're doing now ("On the move", "3 grazing, 2 resting", "Asleep at the cave", "Hibernating in the den"), its home and when it's there ("A cave, back by night; they sleep the winter away in it"), where it lives, its habits and a fact. Click a home for its popup: "Rookery (Penguins)", "Colony (Herring Gull)": who lives there and what they're doing now (home for the night, most out and about by day, away at Lisbon for now, on the wing to Lisbon), for a bird colony when it's there through the year ("Here April to September; the rest of the year at Lisbon", or all year) and any eggs or chicks in the season (its hemisphere's spring and early summer), and a fact. A V on the wing or a seabird out at sea opens the birds popup ("Arctic Tern on the wing: 12 flying to Cape Town"). Each counts as seen for the field guide.
Maritime Empire