Identifying ocelots by individual coat pattern marks using the Whiskerbook

Abstract

The identification of animals at an individual-level is the key for studies of wildlife abundance, density, and population dynamics parameters, such as reproduction and survival. The Wildbook is an online and free database employed to identify a wide range of species at the individual-level by comparing their individual marks in photographs, provided either by citizen science endeavors or passive monitoring. Here, we present the first record of the use of the Whiskerbook platform to identify spotted species in South America. The data was obtained by the camera trap monitoring performed at the Ecological Station Terra do Meio in Brazil throughout five years, with an average of 60 cameras/year and a total of 20.668 days of records. We identified at least 78 ocelots along the five years of monitoring, from a total of 810 camera trap records. Recaptures were recorded from four years and occurred always within one year from the first capture. Recaptures were also recorded within the same year and place for 17 ocelot individuals and co-occurrences suggested that a mean of 3.7 individuals were recorded sharing 14 cameras over the years. Despite Whiskerbook’s limitations, it has demonstrated to be a promising tool for conservation issues, and its potential should be further explored by wildlife researchers.

Keywords

• whiskerbook
• identification
• population
• individual
• spot patterns