iNaturalist Observations Scraper — Species & Biodiversity Data

Extract wildlife observation records from iNaturalist, the world's largest collaborative biodiversity database. Filter by species name, taxon group, geographic place, quality grade, and date range. Returns structured JSON with scientific name, common name, GPS coordinates, observer, and photo URL — ready for research, conservation analysis, or RAG pipelines.

iNaturalist hosts over 300 million observations contributed by naturalists, researchers, and citizen scientists worldwide. It is the primary data source for global biodiversity monitoring, invasive species tracking, and ecological research. Many observations carry research-grade verification from expert identifiers.

Features

• Filter observations by species or taxon name (scientific or common)
• Filter by major taxon group: birds, plants, insects, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fungi, and more
• Filter by iNaturalist place ID (country, state, national park, etc.)
• Filter by quality grade: research, needs_id, or casual
• Filter by observed date range (dateFrom / dateTo)
• Paginate through up to 10,000 results per query (iNaturalist API cap)
• Empty input returns recent observations across all taxa — works out of the box

Data Fields

Field	Description
id	iNaturalist observation ID
scientificName	Accepted scientific name (e.g. Danaus plexippus)
commonName	Preferred common name (e.g. Monarch Butterfly)
iconicTaxon	Major group: Aves, Plantae, Insecta, Mammalia, etc.
rank	Taxonomic rank: species, genus, family, etc.
observedOn	Date of observation (YYYY-MM-DD)
placeGuess	Human-readable location string
latitude	Latitude (decimal degrees, null if obscured)
longitude	Longitude (decimal degrees, null if obscured)
qualityGrade	research, needs_id, or casual
observer	iNaturalist username of the observer
url	Direct link to the observation page
photoUrl	URL of the first observation photo (square thumbnail)

How to Scrape iNaturalist Observations

Step 1 — Open the Actor

Go to the iNaturalist Observations Scraper on the Apify Store and click Try for free.

Step 2 — Configure your input

Fill in the input fields in the Apify Console UI (or paste a JSON input directly):

• Taxon Name: Type any scientific or common name, e.g. Monarch Butterfly or Danaus plexippus. Leave blank for all species.
• Iconic Taxon Group: Select a major group like Aves (birds) or Plantae (plants). Leave blank for all.
• Place ID: Enter an integer place ID. For example, 1 = United States, 6 = California. Find IDs at https://www.inaturalist.org/places.
• Quality Grade: Enter research for verified observations only, or leave blank for all.
• Date From / Date To: Narrow to a specific date range in YYYY-MM-DD format.
• Max Results: How many records to retrieve (1–10,000). Default is 200.

Step 3 — Run the Actor

Click Start and wait for the run to complete. Typical runs finish in seconds to a few minutes depending on maxResults.

Step 4 — Download results

Go to the Dataset tab in the run detail and export as JSON, CSV, or Excel. You can also access results via the Apify API or Apify's integrations (Google Sheets, Zapier, Make, etc.).

Input Example

{
    "taxonName": "Danaus plexippus",
    "iconicTaxon": "Insecta",
    "qualityGrade": "research",
    "dateFrom": "2025-01-01",
    "dateTo": "2025-12-31",
    "maxResults": 500
}

Empty input {} works too — it returns the 200 most recent observations across all species.

Output Example

{
    "id": 375570786,
    "scientificName": "Sylvilagus audubonii",
    "commonName": "Desert Cottontail",
    "iconicTaxon": "Mammalia",
    "rank": "species",
    "observedOn": "2026-06-25",
    "placeGuess": "Los Angeles County, California, US",
    "latitude": 34.1454128827,
    "longitude": -118.0526442021,
    "qualityGrade": "needs_id",
    "observer": "example_user",
    "url": "https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/375570786",
    "photoUrl": "https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/686586504/square.jpg"
}

Pricing

This Actor uses Pay Per Result pricing — you only pay for records returned.

Volume	Estimated cost
200 results (default)	~$0.001
1,000 results	~$0.003
10,000 results	~$0.030

You also pay Apify's standard compute costs, which are minimal for this Actor (no browser required — pure API calls).

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FAQ

Q: Why are some latitude/longitude fields null? A: iNaturalist obscures exact GPS coordinates for threatened or endangered species to protect them from poaching. The placeGuess field still provides a location string.

Q: Why does the Actor cap at 10,000 results? A: The iNaturalist API only allows paginating through the first 10,000 results of any given query. For larger datasets, narrow your query with taxon/place/date filters and run multiple Actor instances.

Q: What is a "research grade" observation? A: An observation is research grade when it has at least 2 identifications that agree on the species-level ID with more than two-thirds agreeing. Research grade observations are the most reliable for scientific use.

Q: Can I scrape observations for a specific national park or protected area? A: Yes. Look up the place ID for the park at https://www.inaturalist.org/places and enter it in the Place ID field.

Q: How fresh is the data? A: The Actor queries the live iNaturalist API, so results are real-time. New observations appear within minutes of being submitted.

Legal Disclaimer

This Actor retrieves publicly accessible data from the iNaturalist API in accordance with iNaturalist's Terms of Service. iNaturalist data is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license for most observations. Users are responsible for complying with applicable data licensing terms and for ensuring their use of the data is lawful in their jurisdiction. This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by iNaturalist or the California Academy of Sciences.

For support, contact the Actor author via the Apify Store listing.