GBIF Species Occurrences Scraper

Extract structured biodiversity occurrence records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) — the world's largest open-access repository of species occurrence data. This Actor queries the free GBIF API and returns clean JSON records with taxonomic classification, geographic coordinates, collection dates, and dataset provenance for conservation research, ecological analysis, and species distribution modeling.

GBIF aggregates occurrence records from thousands of institutions worldwide — museums, herbaria, citizen science initiatives, and research organizations. A single search can return millions of historical and contemporary observations spanning centuries of biodiversity data.

Key Features

• Global occurrence database access — Query 2+ billion species observations with no authentication required
• Taxonomic filtering — Filter by scientific name, taxon key, or multiple ranks (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species)
• Geographic filtering — Restrict results by country, coordinates, or location polygon
• Temporal filtering — Filter by year or year range (e.g., "2020" or "2010,2020")
• Record type filtering — Isolate human observations, museum specimens, fossil records, or experimental observations
• Coordinate validation — Option to return only records with verified GPS coordinates
• Pagination handling — Automatic batching with GBIF's 300-record-per-page limit; respects 100k deep-paging offset cap
• Dataset provenance — Retain dataset name, publication key, institution code, and license for proper attribution
• Clean JSON output — All fields mapped to safe names (e.g., taxonClass instead of class) ready for analysis pipelines

Output Data Fields

Field	Type	Description
key	integer	GBIF unique occurrence identifier
scientificName	string	Species scientific name (e.g., Panthera leo)
kingdom	string	Kingdom classification (e.g., Animalia, Plantae, Fungi)
phylum	string	Phylum classification
taxonClass	string	Class classification (mapped from class)
taxonOrder	string	Order classification (mapped from order)
family	string	Family name
genus	string	Genus name
species	string	Species epithet
taxonRank	string	Taxonomic rank of the record
country	string	Country name
countryCode	string	2-letter ISO country code
stateProvince	string	State or province
locality	string	Specific locality description
decimalLatitude	number	Latitude (WGS84)
decimalLongitude	number	Longitude (WGS84)
elevation	number	Elevation in meters (above sea level)
depth	number	Depth in meters (below water surface)
eventDate	string	Date of observation (ISO format)
year	integer	Year of observation
month	integer	Month of observation (1-12)
day	integer	Day of observation
basisOfRecord	string	Record type (HUMAN_OBSERVATION, SPECIMEN, OBSERVATION, FOSSIL_SPECIMEN, etc.)
occurrenceStatus	string	Status (PRESENT, ABSENT)
individualCount	integer	Number of individuals observed
datasetName	string	Name of the dataset contributing the record
datasetKey	string	GBIF dataset UUID
publishingOrgKey	string	GBIF organization UUID of the data publisher
institutionCode	string	Museum/institution acronym
collectionCode	string	Collection identifier within the institution
catalogNumber	string	Catalog ID within the collection
recordedBy	string	Observer/collector name
identifiedBy	string	Person who identified the specimen
license	string	Data license (e.g., CC_BY_4_0, CC0_1_0)
lastInterpreted	string	Date GBIF last interpreted/validated the record

How to Scrape GBIF Species Occurrence Data

1. Navigate to the GBIF Species Occurrences Scraper Actor page on Apify Store.
2. Click Start to open the input configuration form.
3. (Optional) Enter a Scientific Name to filter by species (e.g., "Panthera leo", "Quercus", "Drosophila").
4. (Optional) Enter a Country ISO code to limit results to one country (e.g., "US", "BR", "ZA").
5. (Optional) Enter a Taxon Key to filter by GBIF's unique taxon identifier.
6. (Optional) Enter a Year Range to filter by observation date (e.g., "2020" for a single year or "2010,2020" for a range).
7. (Optional) Toggle Has Coordinates to only return records with GPS coordinates.
8. (Optional) Enter a Basis of Record filter (e.g., "HUMAN_OBSERVATION", "SPECIMEN").
9. Set Max Results to control output size (default: 1000, set to 0 for unlimited, max 100000).
10. Click Start to run the Actor.
11. Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Dataset tab.

Input Example

{
    "scientificName": "Panthera leo",
    "country": "ZA",
    "year": "2015,2024",
    "hasCoordinate": true,
    "basisOfRecord": "HUMAN_OBSERVATION",
    "maxResults": 500
}

Output Example

{
    "key": 4156523045,
    "scientificName": "Panthera leo",
    "kingdom": "Animalia",
    "phylum": "Chordata",
    "taxonClass": "Mammalia",
    "taxonOrder": "Carnivora",
    "family": "Felidae",
    "genus": "Panthera",
    "species": "leo",
    "taxonRank": "SPECIES",
    "country": "South Africa",
    "countryCode": "ZA",
    "stateProvince": "Kruger National Park",
    "locality": "Central section",
    "decimalLatitude": -24.56,
    "decimalLongitude": 31.82,
    "elevation": 380,
    "depth": null,
    "eventDate": "2020-06-15",
    "year": 2020,
    "month": 6,
    "day": 15,
    "basisOfRecord": "HUMAN_OBSERVATION",
    "occurrenceStatus": "PRESENT",
    "individualCount": 1,
    "datasetName": "African Mammal Sightings",
    "datasetKey": "98e50e68-6ecb-4dca-ab8b-b0e3eabc1234",
    "publishingOrgKey": "1234a5bc-d67e-8f90-1234-567a890123ab",
    "institutionCode": "SANBI",
    "collectionCode": "MAMMAL",
    "catalogNumber": "ZA2020-06-15-001",
    "recordedBy": "Jane Smith",
    "identifiedBy": "Dr. John Doe",
    "license": "CC_BY_4_0",
    "lastInterpreted": "2021-03-10T12:34:56"
}

Pricing

This Actor queries the free GBIF API with automatic pagination. Compute costs depend on result volume.

• Cost per run: ~$0.001 for small queries (< 1000 records), ~$0.005-0.01 for large queries (10k+ records)
• Actor start event: Default platform rate
• Per-result pricing: $0.003/result

Typical run time is 30 seconds for 1000 records, up to several minutes for 50k+ records due to pagination.

Use Cases

• Conservation planning — Map species distributions by country/region to inform protected area designation
• Climate change research — Analyze occurrence trends over time to assess range shifts in response to warming
• Invasive species monitoring — Track the geographic spread of non-native species using historical records
• Biodiversity assessment — Quantify species richness and endemism in target regions
• Museum collection analytics — Export specimen metadata from natural history collections for cataloging
• Citizen science validation — Retrieve expert-verified occurrence records to train models on observation quality
• Ecological niche modeling — Feed occurrence records into MaxEnt or other ENM algorithms
• Taxonomic research — Gather all known specimens of a genus to study morphological variation

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape GBIF data?

Yes. GBIF is a public, open-access repository of biodiversity data. The API is free and requires no authentication. Most records are published under open licenses (CC_BY_4_0 or CC0_1_0). Always check the license field and cite the dataset and publishing organization per their requirements.

How many records can I retrieve?

GBIF hosts 2+ billion occurrence records. The API has a hard limit of 100,000 records per search (due to deep paging limitations). For larger datasets, filter by taxon, country, or date range to narrow results. Schedule multiple runs targeting different subsets.

What does "Basis of Record" mean?

It indicates the source type of the occurrence:

• HUMAN_OBSERVATION — Direct observation by a person (e.g., field sighting, photo)
• SPECIMEN — Museum or herbarium specimen
• OBSERVATION — Observation of unknown source
• FOSSIL_SPECIMEN — Fossilized remains
• LIVING_SPECIMEN — Alive specimen (e.g., in zoo or botanic garden)

Can I export GBIF data to Excel or CSV?

Yes. Apify supports exporting results in JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, and other formats directly from the Dataset tab after a run completes.

What does a null value in eventDate mean?

It means GBIF did not have a specific date for that occurrence record. Dates may be missing for historical specimens or citizen observations without timestamp metadata. The year, month, and day fields may also be null independently.

How often is GBIF updated?

GBIF receives new data continuously from connected institutions. Updates can happen daily. Schedule this Actor to run periodically to capture newly published occurrences.

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Legal Disclaimer

This Actor extracts publicly available biodiversity data from the GBIF API. GBIF data is published by institutions under various open licenses (primarily CC_BY_4_0 or CC0_1_0). Users are responsible for respecting individual dataset licenses and providing proper attribution to data publishers and GBIF. Ensure your use complies with applicable laws and the terms of any derived datasets. For support, contact the Actor developer through the Apify Store.