What Animal Lives Where

Where has the Moorish idol been recorded?

Zanclus cornutus occurrence evidence comes from 5,655 records in 51 countries and territories, from 1881 to 2026. Most records come from United States.

Moorish idol
Moorish idol — Photo (display-sized rendition): Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
PerciformesZanclidaeZanclus

Observation evidence passport

Evidence found

5,655 records across 51 countries and territories, 1881–2026.

Zanclus cornutus · GBIF taxon key 2374663

Source coverage

CC0 GBIF Animalia occurrence facets, including country, month and year summaries.

Refreshed 2026-09-22. Inspect the taxon on GBIF.

What this means

The species has been recorded in the listed places in the stated source universe. Peak month: April.

12 months reach at least 10% of the peak facet count.

What this does not mean

repeated describes the record pattern, not a formal range, residency, abundance or conservation assessment.

A single record remains evidence of a recording, not proof that a population lives there.

Compare this animal’s observation pattern

When it is recorded

JFMAMJJASOND

Peak month: April. Records cluster in the months an animal is present and being looked for, so a summer peak can reflect observer effort as much as the animal.

Records over time

18812026

Recording effort has risen steeply almost everywhere since the 1990s, so a rising line usually shows more observers rather than more animals.

Where Moorish idol has been recorded

The countries below show where occurrence evidence exists for Moorish idol. They do not define a complete habitat range: survey effort differs by place, and historical or one-off records can appear alongside repeated presence.

PlaceRecordsShare
United States 2,312
United States Minor Outlying Islands 740
American Samoa 646
Northern Mariana Islands 516
Guam 280
Seychelles 253
Mexico 118
Philippines 107
Costa Rica 83
Indonesia 70
Panama 68
French Polynesia 56
Palau 48
Micronesia 37
South Africa 35
Colombia 32
Marshall Islands 31
Australia 30
Maldives 20
Japan 16
ZZ 15
Papua New Guinea 13
New Caledonia 12
Thailand 12
Yemen 12
Mauritius 11
Sri Lanka 8
Vanuatu 8
Ecuador 6
Kiribati 5
Myanmar 5
Mozambique 5
Solomon Islands 5
Fiji 4
France 4
Vietnam 4
Wallis & Futuna 4
Kenya 3
Comoros 3
India 2

Showing the top 40 of 51 places.

Record pattern: repeated
Repeated records across many years and months. This is inferred from how many years and months the animal appears in, not from a range map — treat it as evidence, not a formal assessment.