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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s41610-019-0138-z

Where to spot: individual identification of leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis euptilurus) in South Korea  

Park, Heebok (Wildlife Research Lab, Kangwon National University)
Lim, Anya (Research Center for Endangered Species, National Institute of Ecology)
Choi, Tae-Young (Research Center for Endangered Species, National Institute of Ecology)
Baek, Seung-Yoon (Department of Biology, Jeju National University)
Song, Eui-Geun (Division of Ecosystem Assessment, National Institute of Ecology)
Park, Yung Chul (Wildlife Research Lab, Kangwon National University)
Publication Information
Journal of Ecology and Environment / v.43, no.4, 2019 , pp. 385-389 More about this Journal
Abstract
Knowledge of abundance, or population size, is fundamental in wildlife conservation and management. Camera-trapping, in combination with capture-recapture methods, has been extensively applied to estimate abundance and density of individually identifiable animals due to the advantages of being non-invasive, effective to survey wide-ranging, elusive, or nocturnal species, operating in inhospitable environment, and taking low labor. We assessed the possibility of using coat patterns from images to identify an individual leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), a Class II endangered species in South Korea. We analyzed leopard cat images taken from Digital Single-Lense Relfex camera (high resolution, 18Mpxl) and camera traps (low resolution, 3.1Mpxl) using HotSpotter, an image matching algorithm. HotSpotter accurately top-ranked an image of the same individual leopard cat with the reference leopard cat image 100% by matching facial and ventral parts. This confirms that facial and ventral fur patterns of the Amur leopard cat are good matching points to be used reliably to identify an individual. We anticipate that the study results will be useful to researchers interested in studying behavior or population parameter estimates of Amur leopard cats based on capture-recapture models.
Keywords
Leopard cat; Photo identification; Coat pattern; Image matching; Natural marking; Prionailurus bengalensis;
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