In the vignettes “Get started with rcites”, we explained how to get a token and set it up for general access to the CITES Species+ database. Also, we very briefly introduced to how to code the key features of rcites
. With this article, we aim to further introduce to the functionality and workflows of rcites
. For this, we use the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana, hereafter “elephant”) as a case study. The elephant not only is a highly endangered species that is illegally traded globally but also a flagship species of nature conservation and the logo species of CITES.
We start with a basic set up: we load the package and set the token:
In order to access information about the elephant, we first need to retrieve its Species+ taxon identifier. For this, we use the spp_taxonconcept()
function and the elephant’s scientific name, Loxodonta africana, as query_taxon
argument.
As the first column of the output shows, the taxon identifier of the elephant is 4521. This taxon_id
will be used for all next function coding.
Beyond the taxon identifier, the output also provides information about the taxon classification and other names, both synonyms and common names if any, in different languages.
Before giving more insights into the legislation status of the elephant, we have a look at where the elephant actually occurs naturally. For this, we can access the elephant’s distribution information with the spp_distributions()
function. Thereafter, we can map the distribution with the help of the rworldmap
package.
library(rworldmap)
par(las = 1)
elephant_distr <- spp_distributions(taxon_id = "4521",
verbose = FALSE)$distributions
map2 <- joinCountryData2Map(elephant_distr,
joinCode="ISO2",
nameJoinColumn = "iso_code2",
nameCountryColumn = "name")
plot(c(-23, 62), c(45, -40),
type = "n",
main = "Loxodonta africana",
xlab = "Longitude",
ylab = "Latitude")
plot(map2, add = TRUE)
plot(map2[!is.na(map2$iso_code2),], col = "#cba74d", add = TRUE)
The functions spp_cites_legislation()
and spp_eu_legislation()
provide access to the legislation status information of the elephant.
First, we have a look at the CITES legislation status:
We can do the same for the elephant’s legislation status in the European Union:
With the combination of map2
and the legislation data, one might be able to illustrate the elephant’s trade directions. This and other use examples of the rcites
data output will be added bit by bit.
Last but not least, it is important to identify which references the Species+ information about the elephant is based on. For this, we can access the Species+ reference data with the spp_references()
function.