README.md

In traits: Species Trait Data from Around the Web

traits: Species Trait Data from Around the Web

traits

R client for various sources of species trait data.

Docs: https://docs.ropensci.org/traits/

What is a trait? A “trait” for the purposes of this package is broadly defined as an aspect of a species that can be described or measured, such as physical traits (size, length, height, color), behavioral traits (running speed, etc.), and even variables that make up the niche of the species (e.g., habitat).

Included in traits with the associated function prefix or function name:

Source Function prefix Link BETYdb betydb\_ NCBI ncbi\_ Encyclopedia of Life traitbank\_ Birdlife International birdlife\_ LEDA Traitbase leda\_ Zanne et al. plant dataset tr_zanne Amniote life history dataset tr_ernest

Talk to us on the issues page (https://github.com/ropensci/traits/issues) if you know of a source of traits data with an API, and we’ll see about including it.

Installation

CRAN

install.packages("traits")

R-Universe (alternative)

install.packages(
  "traits",
  repos = c("https://ropensci.r-universe.dev", "https://cloud.r-project.org")
)

Development version from GitHub

remotes::install_github("ropensci/traits")

library("traits")
library("dplyr")

Contributors

• Scott Chamberlain
• Zachary Foster
• Ignasi Bartomeus
• David LeBauer
• David Harris
• Chris Black
• Rupert Collins

Meta

• Please report any issues or bugs.
• License: MIT
• Get citation information for traits in R doing citation(package = 'traits')
• Please note that this package is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By contributing to this project, you agree to abide by its terms.

traits documentation built on April 10, 2026, 5:06 p.m.