Effective date: May 14, 2026

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of wildlifesociety.org (the “Site”), operated by Wildlife Society (“we,” “us,” or “our”). Please read them carefully. By accessing or using the Site, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Site.

1. Eligibility

The Site is intended for users who are at least 13 years old. By using the Site you represent that you meet this age requirement and that you have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms.

2. The content we publish

Articles, images, and other materials on the Site are provided for general informational and editorial purposes. We work to keep our content accurate and up to date, but we make no representations or warranties about completeness, reliability, or fitness for a particular purpose. Nothing on the Site is intended as legal, medical, financial, environmental, or other professional advice, and you should not act on the basis of anything you read here without seeking advice from a qualified professional.

3. Permitted use of our content

All articles, photographs, illustrations, layout, and other materials on the Site (collectively, the “Content”) are owned by Wildlife Society or our licensors and are protected by United States and international copyright and other intellectual property laws.

You may view the Content for personal, non-commercial use, share links to individual articles, and quote brief excerpts with proper attribution and a link back to the original article. Any other use, including reproduction, redistribution, republishing, modification, training of machine learning systems, or commercial exploitation, requires our prior written permission.

4. User contributions

The Site may allow you to submit comments, contact-form messages, or other content (“User Contributions”). You are solely responsible for anything you submit. By submitting User Contributions, you confirm that:

• You own or have the necessary rights to the content you submit.
• Your submission does not infringe any third-party rights or violate any applicable law.
• Your submission is not defamatory, harassing, threatening, hateful, obscene, fraudulent, or otherwise objectionable.

You grant Wildlife Society a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable license to use, reproduce, edit for clarity or length, publish, and display User Contributions in connection with the Site and our editorial activities. We may decline to publish, remove, or edit any User Contribution at our discretion and without notice.

5. Prohibited conduct

When using the Site, you agree not to:

• Use the Site for any unlawful purpose or in violation of these Terms.
• Interfere with or disrupt the Site, our servers, or the networks connected to the Site.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any portion of the Site or to any related systems.
• Use automated means (including bots, scrapers, or crawlers) to access, copy, or harvest Content except for standard, well-behaved search engine indexing.
• Use the Site, the Content, or any User Contributions to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models without our express written permission.
• Post advertising, promotional material, chain letters, or unsolicited communications.
• Impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or organization.

6. Third-party links and content

The Site may contain links to third-party websites, services, or resources that we do not control. We provide those links for convenience and do not endorse, monitor, or accept responsibility for any third-party content, products, or services. Your interactions with third parties are solely between you and them.

7. Disclaimer of warranties

The Site and the Content are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty that the Site will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free of viruses or other harmful components.

8. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Wildlife Society and its contributors, employees, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including but not limited to lost profits, lost data, or business interruption, arising out of or related to your use of, or inability to use, the Site, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Our total liability for any claim arising under or related to these Terms will not exceed one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100).

9. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Wildlife Society and its contributors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to your User Contributions, your use of the Site, or your violation of these Terms or any applicable law.

10. Copyright and DMCA

We respect the intellectual property of others. If you believe that material available on the Site infringes your copyright, please send a written notice to [email protected] that includes (a) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed, (b) identification of the allegedly infringing material and its location on the Site, (c) your contact information, (d) a statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized, (e) a statement made under penalty of perjury that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner, and (f) your physical or electronic signature.

11. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Site at any time, with or without notice, for any reason, including violation of these Terms. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including ownership, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and indemnification) will continue to apply after termination.

12. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will revise the effective date at the top of this page. Continued use of the Site after a change becomes effective constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

13. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the state in which the Site is operated, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Site will be brought exclusively in the courts located in that jurisdiction, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

14. Miscellaneous

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Wildlife Society regarding the Site. If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to [email protected] or through our contact page.