BC Species & Ecosystems Explorer
BC Species & Ecosystem Explorer (BCSEE) provides information for over 24,000 plants, animals and ecological communities in BC.
- Learn about the species and ecological communities in BC
- Generate lists based on your chosen criteria
- Find out what potentially occurs in your area of interest
2023 data update! Read about the recent CDC data changes here.
We want to hear from you. Please send your feedback to cdcdata@gov.bc.ca
Generate lists by group, conservation status, legal designation, area and more.
The following YouTube video is based on the previous version of BCSEE , however most instructions still apply. An updated video will be available soon.
Quick Search:
- Select a "Quick Search” – this allows you a ‘one-click’ search for records in BC. You cannot change or add any other criteria.
Other Search Options: Mix and match the search criteria below to narrow your search (pick one or many options):
- Search by Name and/or Group
- Search by Conservation Status or Legal Designation
- Search by Area:
- Draw a user-defined area of interest
- Upload a shapefile (zipped to include all associated files)
- Pre-defined layers (choose by map or list)
- Other Search Options
Results: You have a number of options on the results page including:
- View basic rank and status information for resulting species and ecological communities
- Change the sort order and the number of rows and columns shown on page
- View CDC Mapped Locations (Occurrences) if available
- View reports including:
- summary and conservation status reports
- reports from other databases
- best management practices
- other related references
- Export results details to downloadable table.
Find out where data for species and ecological communities comes from:
Every year (usually in the spring), conservation status and taxonomy information is reflects any updates (G-Ranks, S-Ranks, B.C. List Status). The following updates are made on an as-needed basis:
- Addition of new species or ecological communities
- Taxonomic and/or name changes, including species codes
- COSEWIC status (updates twice a year)
- Federal Species at Risk Act legal status
- Range updates (used in generating area of interest results)
- Species and ecological community summary reports and conservation status reports
- CDC mapped locations (Occurrences) (updated daily)
Find more information about taxonomic and status updates: