Hacker News Reader

Comment by ignostic | Hacker News Reader

Thank you! I am very glad others find the algorithm finding the "best times" to be accurate as well. This was definitely the hardest problem to solve as some places have two seasons, some have one, and I'm trying to find the best time on a scale relative to that place.

I'm aware not everyone will be satisfied the "pleasant weather" parameters I used, but I don't think there's another way to give a range quickly. Perhaps I could add some options on those pages. I'm not sure it would be worth the extra clutter and work to catch edge cases, though, as I'll never satisfy everyone's travel preference. Right now those looking for other weather preferences can use the map, but I understand clicking through several weeks is less than ideal. Hopefully the graphs on the page offer a bit more guidance for you.

One question: are you aware of any dataset that would help locate rare species? I can't guarantee I'll use it, but I love having lots of data handy.

View on HN

I'd prefer not to have an app to find rare species. They're rare for a reason, and that reason is because there are few places the can live, and those places are likely difficult for people to get to. Please don't make it easier for people to get there.

GBIF, https://www.gbif.org/, aggregates biodiversity occurrence data (observations, where specimens held in museums are from, etc).

Everything is available through an open API, although we don't index threat status. Perhaps we should.

Example: Ceratotherium simum, Southern White Rhinoceros [1]. (The threat status shown on the page is taken from an IUCN API.) The distribution data is available either as individual occurrence records [2], or as a summarized map vector tile [3], or a PNG map tile [4]. You would probably want to add a year range filter for recent observations.

You can also download e.g. everything with coordinates and crunch through the data yourself.

You will often find the coordinates have a low accuracy for endangered species, to prevent misuse. I won't comment on whether making such an app is a good idea or not.

(I am a software developer at GBIF.)

[1] https://www.gbif.org/species/2440880

[2] https://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?has_coordinate=tru...

[3] https://api.gbif.org/v2/map/occurrence/density/0/0/0.mvt?tax...

[4] https://api.gbif.org/v2/map/occurrence/density/0/0/0@1x.png?...

Wow, thanks for mentioning this. Didn't know it but it looks pretty awesome especially becuase of the combination of all datasets.

I'm not sure it would be worth the extra clutter

Not likely. I mean, for like 99% the current parameters are ok, stuff is easy to use, why bother changing it :]

are you aware of any dataset that would help locate rare species

Not directly but there's sites like observation.org, not sure if they have APIs. Be warned though: it's a lot of information because there are so many species so making crawling through that handy and useful would require quite the interface.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com