Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Ontario
Wildlife Management Units API

Find the wildlife management unit for any location.

The Neighbourly Wildlife Management Units API returns WMU boundaries as GeoJSON polygons. Each unit is linked to the provinces, counties and municipalities it overlaps. Ask for a map viewport and get back the units that cover it, with or without their geometry.

WMU polygonsUnit codesLinked municipalitiesViewport queriesOntario & BC
Sample recordLive API
WMU 50
Central Ontario · wildlife_managment_unit 264
Unit
50
Counties
4
Municipalities
12
MultiPolygonLinked hierarchyOntario
WMU boundariesUnit codesCounty linksMunicipality linksGeoJSON
Overview

What is a wildlife management unit?

A wildlife management unit (WMU) is a geographic area that a province uses to manage hunting and trapping. Seasons, quotas and tag allocations are set unit by unit. Ontario's units are numbered, with lettered sub-units such as 11A or 69A-1. This API returns each unit's boundary and links it to the Neighbourly location hierarchy, so you can go from an address or municipality to its WMU and back.

Units for any map view

Send a viewport and get the units that overlap it. Leave out geometry with includes_boundaries=false when you only need the codes.

Joined to the location hierarchy

Each unit lists the province_ids, county_ids and lower_tier_municipality_ids it overlaps, so a municipality page can say which WMUs it falls in.

Pre-computed GeoJSON

Boundaries are stored as ready-to-send GeoJSON, so viewport requests return quickly without a spatial join at query time.

Fields

What each record contains.

These are the fields the API returns for this layer. Field names match the JSON response exactly.

Field Type Description
id integer Stable Neighbourly unit ID
official_name string Unit code, e.g. 50, 11A, 69A-1
geog_unit_descr string Unit description, where published
province_ids integer[] Overlapping provinces
county_ids integer[] Overlapping counties
lower_tier_municipality_ids integer[] Overlapping municipalities
neighbourhood_ids integer[] Overlapping neighbourhoods
ogf_id integer Source feature ID
boundary_geojson GeoJSON MultiPolygon geometry
Endpoints

Query by map view, ID or filter.

All requests go to https://api.neighbourly.io and send your key in the Api-Key header. A viewport is a JSON bounding box, {"southWestLat":…,"southWestLon":…,"northEastLat":…,"northEastLon":…}, URL-encoded.

GET
/api/v1/locations/wildlife_managment_unit?viewport={…}&includes_boundaries=true
Units overlapping a viewport, with optional geometry. Default 500, up to 1,000 per request. (The path keeps its historical spelling.)
GET
/api/v1/locations/wildlife_managment_unit/{id}
One unit with its boundary.
GET
/api/v1/spatial/wildlife_management_units
Units as a GeoJSON FeatureCollection, paged in sets of up to 200.
Example response

Real data, straight from the API.

Live response. The IDs resolve through the Neighbourly location endpoints.

  • GeometryMultiPolygon
  • FormatJSON and GeoJSON (WGS84, EPSG:4326)
  • CoverageOntario and British Columbia, Canada
  • SourceOntario Ministry of Natural Resources (Ontario GeoHub); BC Data Catalogue — Wildlife Management Units
  • Per requestUp to 1,000 by viewport; 200 per page on /spatial
  • AuthApi-Key header
GET /api/v1/locations/wildlife_managment_unit?viewport={Huntsville} 200 OK
[
  {
    "id":                          264,
    "ogf_id":                      66860890,
    "official_name":               "50",
    "province_ids":                [40],
    "county_ids":                  [125, 126, 212, 213],
    "lower_tier_municipality_ids": [9, 369, 410, 70, 74, 3, 146, 290, 359, 405, 365, 263]
  }
]
Who uses it

Where this layer earns its place.

Rural & recreational real estate

Hunting context on rural listings

Tell buyers of hunt camps and rural acreage which WMU a property is in, so they can look up seasons and tags.

Outdoor apps

Unit lookup from GPS

Show the user's current WMU from their location and link them to the province's regulations for that unit.

Government & land managers

Cross-jurisdiction rollups

Use the municipality links to report activity by WMU, or list the WMUs inside a county.

Insurance

Wildlife-exposure segmentation

Group rural properties by management unit as a consistent regional key.

Related layers

Works well with.

Every environmental layer shares the same API key, coordinate system and response conventions. Combine them in one integration.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about the Wildlife Management Units API.

What is a wildlife management unit?

A geographic area a province uses to manage hunting and trapping. Seasons, quotas and tags are set unit by unit.

Does the API include hunting regulations?

No. It returns unit boundaries and codes. Use the unit code to look up current seasons and rules in the province's official hunting regulations.

Where does the data come from?

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources WMU boundaries from Ontario GeoHub. The importer also supports British Columbia's WMU schema from the BC Data Catalogue.

How do I find the WMU for an address?

Geocode the address, then send a small viewport around the point. The units returned are those whose boundaries overlap it.

Why is the endpoint spelled "managment"?

The path keeps its original spelling for backward compatibility. The standard /api/v1/spatial/wildlife_management_units route uses the correct spelling.

How do I get access?

Request an API key from the dashboard or book a demo. Every request sends the key in the Api-Key header. Pricing is usage-based.

Data sources

Neighbourly normalizes public open data into one schema. Source licences and attribution apply; see our terms.

Add WMU lookups to your product.

Get an API key and query this layer today, or talk to us about coverage and volume.