Photoidentification as a potential tool for individual recognition of Dendropsophus elegans (Anura: Hylidae)

Abstract

Marking-recapture techniques are essential in the study of wild animal populations, and the use of accessible, easy to apply, and less invasive methods is preferable. Several studies have reported negative effects of more invasive or inaccurate techniques when studying animal behaviour and survival, which raised the alert for the encouragement of affordable and less invasive techniques, such as photoidentification using natural markings. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of the promising use of photoidentification with the application of visible elastomers in the field, verifying application time and presence of stress behaviours in the model anuran species Dendropsophus elegans (Wied-Neuwied, 1824), which has an evident dorsal spotting pattern. In addition, we checked the subsequent performance of individual recognition by software-assisted photoidentification, code recognition of visible elastomers, and manual photoidentification, considering accuracy (error types) and recognition time. We found that software photoidentification had a similar performance to the manual one and elastomer combination for identifying recaptures, but its execution time was the shortest among the three and it was more accurate. There was no association between the presence of stress behaviours and any technique applied in the field. These results suggest that software-assisted photoidentification combined with a field protocol may be an efficient technique in the study of this species, and its applicability may be extended to other species with natural markings.