The paparazzi are out – and this time no one is safe!

Using photos to identify individuals in a population has long been used for species that have unique markings or patterns – for example Wild Dogs or Orcas. Recent developments have used deep learning and facial recognition to identify individuals of less differentiable species such as brown bears. This allows researchers to ‘follow’ individuals in populations without the need for invasive marking/tagging methods.

Although it remains to be seen if this will pass the ratings of the annual Fat Bear Week…

Tanya Strydom is a PhD student at the Université de Montréal, mostly focusing on how we can use machine learning and artificial intelligence in ecology. Current research interests include (but are not limited to) predicting ecological networks, the role species traits and scale in ecological networks, general computer (and maths) geekiness, and a (seemingly) ever growing list of side projects. Tweets (sometimes related to actual science) can be found @TanyaS_08.