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

Heebok Park,Eui-Geun Song,Anya Lim,Tae-Young Choi,Yung Chul Park,Seung-Yoon Baek

doi:10.1186/s41610-019-0138-z

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.

Highlights

Abundance, or population size, is a primary parameter in wildlife conservation and management used to prioritize conservation actions and assess the conservation effectiveness (Seber 1973; McCarthy et al 2008; Jenks et al 2011; Jones 2011; Rovero et al 2014)
In order to identify reliable natural markings, we analyzed Amur leopard cat images from two different sources—facial images of seven captive individuals in two wildlife rescue centers, Gyungnam Wildlife Rescue Center and Korean Avian Conservation Society in Cheolwon, in South Korea, taken with high-resolution (18 Mpxl) Digital Single-Lense Relfex cameras (EOS 7D, Canon Inc, DSC-HX400V, Sony Inc.), and images of 11 wild individuals taken with lowresolution (3.1 Mpxl) camera traps (Reconyx HC550)
We selected a total of 11 high-resolution images of 7 captive leopard cats (4 females and 3 males) and 15 low-resolution images of 11 wild leopard cats that contained less noise and clutter among the 63 low-resolution images that we obtained

Summary

Introduction

Population size, is a primary parameter in wildlife conservation and management used to prioritize conservation actions and assess the conservation effectiveness (Seber 1973; McCarthy et al 2008; Jenks et al 2011; Jones 2011; Rovero et al 2014). It is non-invasive, thereby reducing observer bias and influence on animal’s behavior and requires less manpower (Gompper et al 2006, Alonso et al 2015, Caravaggi et al 2017). Natural body markings, such as stripes, spots, and blotches, from camera trap photos are some indicators to identify individuals (Sharma et al 2013; Boron et al 2016; Mettouris et al 2016). Natural body markings include coat patterns and whisker spot patterns and permanent scars (Creel and Creel 1997; Anderson et al 2007; Osterrieder et al 2015)

Objectives

Methods

Results