Biologists Use Smart Recognition Software to ID Specific Animals Visually Instead of Tagging Them
The Leatherback Sea Turtle The spot atop the leatherback's head can be used as a biomarker, making it easier and safer for marine biologists to identify individual specimens without resorting to radio tagging or other electronic marking methods. rustinpc via Wikimedia Imagine if every time you needed to officially identify yourself you had to be sedated and knocked out cold. This might sound only slightly less stressful than checking through security at the airport, but for animals being tracked by wildlife authorities and researchers it's a regularity that is not only stressful, but potentially harmful. But new "visual fingerprinting" technology that recognizes individual animals based on physical characteristics - similar to face recognition technology - is allowing researchers to track animals from afar, sans the tranquilizer darts and physical ID tags. One beneficiary of this emerging technology is the leatherback sea turtle, which marine biologists usually identify by conventional plastic tags. These...