Welcome to iucnr, an R package designed for researchers, ecologists,
and conservationists to query and integrate data from the IUCN Red
List of Threatened Species efficiently and offline.
By pairing with the local data provider iucnrdata, iucnr allows
users to perform exact and fuzzy taxonomic matching for species lists,
retrieve IUCN Red List conservation statuses, and fetch preferred
vernacular (common) names without needing an API key or an active
internet connection.
Bienvenido a iucnr, un paquete de R diseñado para investigadores,
ecólogos y conservacionistas que buscan consultar e integrar datos de la
Lista Roja de Especies Amenazadas de la UICN de forma eficiente y
sin necesidad de conexión a internet.
Al combinarse con el paquete de datos local iucnrdata, iucnr permite
realizar emparejamientos taxonómicos exactos y aproximados (fuzzy
matching) para listas de especies de flora y fauna, obtener
categorías de conservación de la Lista Roja de la UICN y recuperar
nombres comunes o vernáculos preferidos sin requerir claves de API.
To ensure access to the full IUCN database offline, install the data
package iucnrdata from R-Universe:
install.packages(
"iucnrdata",
repos = c("https://paulesantos.r-universe.dev", "https://cloud.r-project.org")
)
You can install the development version of iucnr from GitHub:
# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("PaulESantos/iucnr")
Retrieve the IUCN conservation status and common names for iconic wild fauna species (mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles):
library(iucnr)
fauna <- c(
"Panthera onca", # Jaguar
"Tremarctos ornatus", # Andean Bear / Oso de anteojos
"Vultur gryphus", # Andean Condor
"Spheniscus humboldti", # Humboldt Penguin
"Ambystoma mexicanum" # Axolotl
)
# Retrieve conservation status as a tibble
get_iucn_status(splist = fauna, format = "tbl")
#> # A tibble: 5 × 4
#> id submitted_name matched_species redlist_category
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 1 Panthera onca Panthera onca Near Threatened
#> 2 2 Tremarctos ornatus Tremarctos ornatus Vulnerable
#> 3 3 Vultur gryphus Vultur gryphus Vulnerable
#> 4 4 Spheniscus humboldti Spheniscus humboldti Vulnerable
#> 5 5 Ambystoma mexicanum Ambystoma mexicanum Critically Endangered
Retrieve common names for the same fauna species:
get_iucn_common_name(splist = fauna, format = "tbl")
#> # A tibble: 5 × 4
#> id submitted_name matched_species common_name
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 1 Panthera onca Panthera onca Jaguar
#> 2 2 Tremarctos ornatus Tremarctos ornatus Andean Bear
#> 3 3 Vultur gryphus Vultur gryphus Andean Condor
#> 4 4 Spheniscus humboldti Spheniscus humboldti Humboldt Penguin
#> 5 5 Ambystoma mexicanum Ambystoma mexicanum Axolotl
Retrieve IUCN data for threatened, vulnerable, or key plant species (trees, palms, high-altitude Andean flora):
flora <- c(
"Ceroxylon mequense", # Quindío Wax Palm / Palma de cera
"Swietenia macrophylla", # Big-leaf Mahogany / Caoba
"Puya raimondii", # Queen of the Andes / Titanca
"Cedrela odorata", # Spanish Cedar / Cedro amargo
"Polylepis racemosa" # Quenoa / Queñua tree
)
get_iucn_status(splist = flora, format = "tbl")
#> # A tibble: 5 × 4
#> id submitted_name matched_species redlist_category
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 1 Ceroxylon mequense --- ---
#> 2 2 Swietenia macrophylla Swietenia macrophylla Endangered
#> 3 3 Puya raimondii Puya raimondii Endangered
#> 4 4 Cedrela odorata Cedrela odorata Vulnerable
#> 5 5 Polylepis racemosa Polylepis racemosa Data Deficient
iucnr automatically resolves typographical errors in species names
using string distance algorithm (max_dist = 1):
splist_typos <- c(
"Pantera onca", # Typo in genus: Panthera -> Pantera
"Puya raimondi", # Typo in epithet: raimondii -> raimondi
"Escallonia ressinosa" # Typo in epithet: resinosa -> ressinosa
)
get_iucn_status(splist = splist_typos, format = "tbl")
#> # A tibble: 3 × 4
#> id submitted_name matched_species redlist_category
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 1 Pantera onca Panthera onca Near Threatened
#> 2 2 Puya raimondi Puya raimondii Endangered
#> 3 3 Escallonia ressinosa Escallonia resinosa Near Threatened
tidyverse & dplyr workflowsIntegrate conservation statuses and common names directly into your data frame of species occurrences or ecological surveys:
library(dplyr)
library(tibble)
biodiversity_survey <- tibble(
species_name = c(
"Panthera onca",
"Swietenia macrophylla",
"Vultur gryphus",
"Puya raimondii",
"Tremarctos ornatus"
),
group = c("Fauna", "Flora", "Fauna", "Flora", "Fauna")
)
survey_with_iucn <- biodiversity_survey %>%
mutate(
iucn_status = get_iucn_status(species_name, format = "vect"),
common_name = get_iucn_common_name(species_name, format = "vect")
)
survey_with_iucn
#> # A tibble: 5 × 4
#> species_name group iucn_status common_name
#> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 Panthera onca Fauna Near Threatened Jaguar
#> 2 Swietenia macrophylla Flora Endangered Big Leaf Mahogany
#> 3 Vultur gryphus Fauna Vulnerable Andean Condor
#> 4 Puya raimondii Flora Endangered Queen of the Andes
#> 5 Tremarctos ornatus Fauna Vulnerable Andean Bear
When using information from the IUCN Red List retrieved via iucnr in
your scientific publications or reports, please cite the underlying IUCN
dataset:
IUCN. 2026. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2026-1. Data retrieved via GBIF (https://www.gbif.org/dataset/19491596-35ae-4a91-9a98-85cf505f1bd3).
For package citation in R:
citation("iucnr")
#> To cite iucnr in publications use:
#>
#> Santos-Andrade Paul E. (2026). iucnr: IUCN Red List Data.
#>
#> A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is
#>
#> @Manual{,
#> author = {Paul E. Santos Andrade},
#> title = {iucnr: IUCN Red List Data},
#> year = {2026},
#> url = {https://paulesantos.github.io/iucnr/},
#> }
#>
#> To cite the IUCN dataset, please use: IUCN. 2026. The IUCN Red List of
#> Threatened Species. Version 2026-1. Data retrieved from GBIF
#> (https://www.gbif.org/dataset/19491596-35ae-4a91-9a98-85cf505f1bd3).