Why would extinct be missing from /species/search?

1

related to Extinction status and the species API routes (can’t re-open that thread though)

The species API route /species/search gives extinction status for some taxa, but not others. Why might the field be missing for some taxa? For example:

curl 'https://api.gbif.org/v1/species/search?q=Camelops&datasetKey=d7dddbf4-2cf0-4f39-9b2a-bb099caae36c' | jq '.results[].extinct'

true
null
true
true
true
true
true
null
true
true
true
true
true
true
true
true
true
true
true
true

If the extinct field is a boolean, does null (missing) mean that it’s extinction status is unknown?

And I assume null's are simply dropped from JSON results before being returned to the client?

2

Yes exactly. NULL means we don’t know it and properties with NULL values in GBIF JSON are left out and do not use the Javascript null value

3

Thanks very much, makes sense

4

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.