Examining the viability of dorsal fin pigmentation for individual identification of poorly-marked delphinids

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dc.citation.volume8
dc.contributor.authorPawley MDM
dc.contributor.authorHupman KE
dc.contributor.authorStockin K
dc.contributor.authorGilman A
dc.date.available2018-08-22
dc.date.available2018-08-02
dc.date.issued2018-08-22
dc.description.abstractDolphin photo-identification has traditionally relied only on distinctive markings on the dorsal fin—this is problematic for delphinids whose populations exhibit a low mark ratio. We used common dolphins (genus Delphinus) as a model species to assess the viability of using pigmentation for photo-identification. Using a photo-identification catalogue of 169 adult individuals collected between 2002 and 2013, we extracted features that quantified pigmentation in a manner that was robust to lighting artefacts and dorsal fin orientation. We determined the proportion of individuals which exhibited pigmentation and examined temporal stability by (i) visually examining individuals and (ii) testing for seriation. We found 88–91% of images could be manually matched to the correct individual in the catalogue based on pigmentation patterns alone. A linear discriminant analysis classifier correctly identified the correct individual 77% of the time. We found 95% common dolphins exhibited distinctive pigmentation—all of which were temporarily stable. Our work challenges the current thinking that pigmentation is an unreliable feature for delphinid photo-identification and suggests that this feature could be applied to common dolphins and other poorly-marked delphinids.
dc.description.publication-statusPublished
dc.identifierhttp://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000442388100021&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=c5bb3b2499afac691c2e3c1a83ef6fef
dc.identifierARTN 12593
dc.identifier.citationSCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 2018, 8
dc.identifier.doi10.1038/s41598-018-30842-7
dc.identifier.elements-id413484
dc.identifier.harvestedMassey_Dark
dc.identifier.issn2045-2322
dc.publisherSpringer Nature Limited
dc.relation.isPartOfSCIENTIFIC REPORTS
dc.rightsOpen Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made
dc.titleExamining the viability of dorsal fin pigmentation for individual identification of poorly-marked delphinids
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.notesNot known
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University/College of Sciences
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University/College of Sciences/School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University/College of Sciences/School of Natural and Computational Sciences
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University/College of Sciences/School of Natural Sciences
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