Dolphins who's who: A statistical perspective

Abstract

When studying animal behaviour and ecology the recognition of individuals is very important and in the case of bottlenose dolphins this can be done via photo-identification of their dorsal fins. Here we develop a mathematical model that describes this fin shape which is then fitted to the data by a Bayesian approach implemented using MCMC methods. This project is still at a testing stage and we are currently working with simulated data. Future work includes: extracting the outline of the fin shape from the pictures; fitting the model to real data; and devising a way of using the model to discriminate between individuals. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.