New AI tool identifies wild animals by their unique patterns in real time

Patterns reveal the individual: A novel AI algorithm equips researchers with a powerful new tool to accurately identify individual jaguars, zebras and giraffes in real time based on their unique coat patterns. Biologists and ecologists can now observe individual wild animals as they move from place to place, as well as their behavior and development over long periods, accurately, with much less effort and significantly faster than before—a major step forward for nature conservation. The scientists explain how this works in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution.