IUCN API

29 F

Metadata Score Metadata estimate · not endpoint-tested

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Overview

The IUCN Red List API provides conservation status data for over 150,000 animal, plant, and fungal species, including whether a species is Extinct, Endangered, or Least Concern. Beginners interested in wildlife, ecology, or data science can use it to pull species risk assessments, habitat information, and population trends. A free API key is required and can be requested directly from the IUCN website.

Beginner Tip

Request your free API key at https://apiv3.iucnredlist.org/api/v3/token, then append ?token=YOUR_KEY to every request URL — the token must be present on all calls.

Available Data

The kind of data this API exposes, based on its documentation. We could not call the endpoint to confirm the exact field names.

IUCN data via REST API

Example Response

Illustrative shape only — we were not able to call this endpoint (it requires credentials or exposes no public sample URL), so the fields below show the kind of data this API returns rather than a recorded response.

JSON Response · Illustrative

{
  "name": "IUCN",
  "data": "IUCN-specific information and attributes",
  "source": "IUCN"
}

Field Reference

name Scientific (Latin) name of the species.

category IUCN Red List category code — e.g. "EN" (Endangered), "VU" (Vulnerable), "LC" (Least Concern), "EX" (Extinct).

criteria The criteria code used to assign the category, e.g. "A2cd".

population_trend Whether the species population is "Decreasing", "Stable", "Increasing", or "Unknown".

main_common_names List of common names for the species across different languages.

Implementation Example

Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.

Request

const url = "http://apiv3.iucnredlist.org/api/v3/species/Panthera%20leo?token=YOUR_API_KEY";
// Replace headers or query params with the values required by this API.
const response = await fetch(url, {
  headers: {
  "X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
  }
});
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

What Can You Build?

Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.

Common Errors & Troubleshooting

Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.

401 Unauthorized Missing or invalid token parameter in the request URL

✓ Add ?token=YOUR_API_KEY to the end of every endpoint URL you call

Species not found (empty result array) The species name is misspelled or uses a common name instead of the Latin binomial

✓ Use the full scientific name, e.g. "Panthera leo" — common names like "lion" will not work

429 Too Many Requests Exceeding the rate limit for your token tier

✓ Add a small delay (1-2 seconds) between requests and cache results locally to avoid repeated calls

Metadata Score Breakdown

Estimated from metadata — endpoint not independently tested

This score is estimated from observable metadata — HTTPS support, authentication model, declared CORS, and documentation reachability — because the API requires authentication or exposes no publicly testable endpoint. The five-signal breakdown is only shown for live-tested APIs.

Metadata estimate · endpoint not independently tested

How is this scored? →