GBIF Biodiversity Data Scraper

Scrape species, occurrence records, and datasets from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) — the world's largest open biodiversity database with 2+ billion occurrence records.

Features

• Species Search — Find species by common or scientific name, filter by taxonomy (kingdom, phylum, family, genus)
• Species Details — Get comprehensive info including vernacular names, distributions, and full taxonomy
• Occurrence Search — Find biodiversity sightings with GPS coordinates, dates, and collection metadata
• Dataset Discovery — Search research datasets by topic, type, or publishing country

Use Cases

• Ecological research — Find occurrence data for species distribution modeling
• Conservation — Track species sightings across regions and time periods
• Data journalism — Build biodiversity visualizations from open data
• Education — Access taxonomic data for learning and teaching
• Citizen science — Aggregate and analyze biodiversity observations

Input Examples

Search for species

{
    "mode": "species_search",
    "query": "Panthera tigris",
    "limit": 10
}

Get species details

{
    "mode": "species_details",
    "speciesKey": 5219404
}

Find occurrences (sightings)

{
    "mode": "occurrence_search",
    "scientificName": "Panthera tigris",
    "country": "IN",
    "year": "2024",
    "limit": 50
}

Search datasets

{
    "mode": "dataset_search",
    "query": "butterflies",
    "datasetType": "OCCURRENCE",
    "limit": 10
}

Output

Results are pushed to the default Apify dataset. Each mode returns structured JSON with relevant fields:

• Species: scientific name, taxonomy, occurrence counts, vernacular names
• Occurrences: coordinates, dates, collection info, recording institutions
• Datasets: title, description, record counts, DOI, license

API

Uses the GBIF REST API — no authentication required. Free and open access.

Limits

• GBIF API returns up to 1000 results per request (species/datasets) or 300 (occurrences)
• Use offset parameter for pagination through larger result sets
• Rate limits are generous for the public API