GBIF Species & Biodiversity Occurrence Search (Free)

Resolve any species name to the GBIF backbone taxonomy and pull real biodiversity occurrence records — observations, museum specimens and research-grade sightings — from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, the world's largest open biodiversity network (2+ billion records).

Give it a list of scientific or common names and get back full taxonomy (kingdom → species), the total number of recorded occurrences, and individual records with GPS coordinates, dates, datasets and collectors. Filter by country, year range, or georeferenced records only. This actor is 100% free — you only pay your own Apify platform usage.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
species	array of strings	(required)	Species names to resolve. One dataset item per name.
maxOccurrences	integer	25	Occurrence records per species (0 = taxonomy only, max 300).
country	string	""	Optional ISO 2-letter country filter, e.g. KE, FR.
hasCoordinate	boolean	false	Only return records with latitude/longitude.
fromYear	integer	—	Optional earliest observation year.
toYear	integer	—	Optional latest observation year.

Output

One dataset item per species, always with an explicit status field (found, not_found or error) — the actor never crashes on an unknown name.

{
  "status": "found",
  "query": "Panthera leo",
  "usageKey": 5219404,
  "scientificName": "Panthera leo (Linnaeus, 1758)",
  "canonicalName": "Panthera leo",
  "rank": "SPECIES",
  "taxonomicStatus": "ACCEPTED",
  "matchType": "EXACT",
  "matchConfidence": 99,
  "kingdom": "Animalia",
  "phylum": "Chordata",
  "class": "Mammalia",
  "order": "Carnivora",
  "family": "Felidae",
  "genus": "Panthera",
  "species": "Panthera leo",
  "gbifUrl": "https://www.gbif.org/species/5219404",
  "totalOccurrences": 18913,
  "returnedOccurrences": 2,
  "topCountries": [{ "country": "South Africa", "count": 2 }],
  "earliestYear": 2019,
  "latestYear": 2026,
  "occurrences": [
    {
      "occurrenceKey": 5938104699,
      "scientificName": "Panthera leo melanochaita (C.E.H.Smith, 1858)",
      "country": "South Africa",
      "countryCode": "ZA",
      "latitude": -24.907649,
      "longitude": 31.462346,
      "eventDate": "2026-01-01T09:15:50",
      "year": 2026,
      "basisOfRecord": "HUMAN_OBSERVATION",
      "recordedBy": "jniff",
      "datasetName": "iNaturalist research-grade observations",
      "gbifUrl": "https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/5938104699"
    }
  ],
  "error": null
}

Use cases

• Ecology & conservation research — map where a species has actually been recorded, and when.
• Clean a species list — resolve synonyms and misspellings to accepted scientific names and stable GBIF keys.
• Build biodiversity dashboards — feed coordinates straight into a GIS or mapping tool.
• Environmental due diligence — check which protected or invasive species occur in a given country.

Limitations & fair use

• Data comes from the public GBIF API. Occurrence records are contributed by thousands of institutions under varying open licences (mostly CC0 / CC BY) — always check and cite the source dataset before redistribution.
• Name matching uses the GBIF backbone. Ambiguous or vernacular names may match a higher rank (genus, family); check matchType and matchConfidence.
• totalOccurrences is the full GBIF count; occurrences only contains the first maxOccurrences records.
• A polite delay is applied between requests. Network calls retry up to 3 times with backoff; failures are reported as an error item rather than crashing the run.

More actors by this developer

Browse the full collection of free data and enrichment actors: apify.com/fit_melon