Title |
Spot the match – wildlife photo-identification using information theory
|
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Published in |
Frontiers in Zoology, January 2007
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DOI | 10.1186/1742-9994-4-2 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Conrad W Speed, Mark G Meekan, Corey JA Bradshaw |
Abstract |
Effective approaches for the management and conservation of wildlife populations require a sound knowledge of population demographics, and this is often only possible through mark-recapture studies. We applied an automated spot-recognition program (I3S) for matching natural markings of wildlife that is based on a novel information-theoretic approach to incorporate matching uncertainty. Using a photo-identification database of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) as an example case, the information criterion (IC) algorithm we developed resulted in a parsimonious ranking of potential matches of individuals in an image library. Automated matches were compared to manual-matching results to test the performance of the software and algorithm. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Thailand | 1 | 50% |
Unknown | 1 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 2 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 4 | 1% |
Brazil | 4 | 1% |
United Kingdom | 3 | <1% |
Hungary | 3 | <1% |
South Africa | 2 | <1% |
Mozambique | 2 | <1% |
Australia | 2 | <1% |
Ecuador | 2 | <1% |
Bahamas | 1 | <1% |
Other | 11 | 3% |
Unknown | 366 | 92% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Master | 84 | 21% |
Researcher | 69 | 17% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 61 | 15% |
Student > Bachelor | 49 | 12% |
Other | 22 | 6% |
Other | 60 | 15% |
Unknown | 55 | 14% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 207 | 52% |
Environmental Science | 68 | 17% |
Computer Science | 14 | 4% |
Earth and Planetary Sciences | 11 | 3% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 6 | 2% |
Other | 25 | 6% |
Unknown | 69 | 17% |