Jungle Journal

Support

For questions, bug reports, and feature requests

The fastest way to get help is to email hello@junglejournal.org. We read every message. Most replies go out within 24 hours.

Common questions

Does Jungle Journal work offline?

Yes — the identification model runs entirely on your phone, so you can identify species in the bush with no signal. The community map and account features need an internet connection, but the rest of the app keeps working offline.

How accurate is the identification?

The current model recognises 323 Southern African species at 74.7% top-1 accuracy and 89% top-3 accuracy. When the model isn't fully sure, the app shows you the top three candidates so you can pick the right one. If none look right, you can save the photo as a "mystery sighting" and reclassify it later.

Why can't I see rhinos / pangolins on the community map?

We deliberately do not show locations for species under heavy poaching pressure. The full list includes rhinos, pangolins, large vultures, African wild dog, cheetah, ground hornbill, certain cranes, and a few rare tortoises. If you photograph one of these animals it still saves to your personal journal — only the public location share is blocked.

How do I delete my account?

Open the app → tap your profile (bottom right) → Settings → Delete Account. Deletion is permanent — your account, your sign-in, and any community map sightings linked to you are removed from our servers immediately. Photos and journal entries on your phone are not affected; delete the app if you want those gone too.

I deleted my account by mistake. Can you recover it?

Unfortunately not. There is no soft-delete grace period — deletion is final and immediate. You can sign up again with the same email or Apple ID, but the new account starts empty.

My photo identification looks wrong.

Tap "See alternatives" on the identification screen — the top three candidates are usually right when the first one isn't. If none of them match, save as a mystery sighting and reclassify from the Profile screen later.

Will I be able to share my photos to help improve the model?

Not in this version. We are exploring an opt-in flow for v1.1 where users can voluntarily contribute high-quality photos to a training dataset. Until that ships, your photos stay on your phone exclusively.

How do you handle privacy?

See our full Privacy Policy. The short version: identification runs on your device, photos and journal entries never leave your phone, and the only thing on our servers is your account and the community map sightings you choose to share publicly.

Get in touch

We are a small, South Africa-based team. We do not have a phone line. Email reaches us quickly and lets us keep a written record of conversations, which is the only practical way for an app this small to provide reliable support.