Description

IUCN Red List R Client

Taxonomic Names vs. IUCN IDs

From the documentation (quoting): "It is advisable wherever possible to use the taxon name (species name) to make your API calls, rather than using IDs. IDs are not immovable are expected to be used mainly by organisations that work closely with the IUCN Red List."

Authentication

IUCN requires you to get your own API key, an alphanumeric string that you need to send in every request. See key A IUCN API token. See rl_use_iucn() for help getting and storing it. Get it at https://apiv3.iucnredlist.org/api/v3/token Keep this key private. You can pass the key in to each function via the key parameter, but it's better to store the key either as a environment variable (IUCN_REDLIST_KEY) or an R option (iucn_redlist_key) - we recommend using the former option.

High vs. Low level package APIs

High level API High level functions do the HTTP request and parse data to a data.frame for ease of downstream use. The high level functions have no underscore on the end of the function name, e.g., rl_search()

Low level API The parsing to data.frame in the high level API does take extra time. The low level API only does the HTTP request, and gives back JSON without doing any more parsing. The low level functions DO have an underscore on the end of the function name, e.g., rl_search_()

No Spatial

This package does not include support for the spatial API, described at https://apiv3.iucnredlist.org/spatial

Citing the Red List API

Get the proper citation for the version of the Red List you are using by programatically running rl_citation()

Red List API Terms of Use

See https://www.iucnredlist.org/terms/terms-of-use

Rate limiting

From the IUCN folks: Too many frequent calls, or too many calls per day might get your access blocked temporarily. If you're a heavy API user, the Red List Unit asked that you contact them, as there might be better options. They suggest a 2-second delay between your calls if you plan to make a lot of calls.

Citing the IUCN Red List API

See https://apiv3.iucnredlist.org/about