Automated Visual Recognition of Individual African Penguins

African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) carry a pattern of black spots on their chests that does not change from season to season during their adult life. Further, as far as we can tell, no two penguins have exactly the same pattern. We have developed a real-time system that can confidently locate African penguins whose chests are visible within video sequences or still images. An extraction of the chest spot pattern allows the generation of a unique biometrical identifier for each penguin. Using these identifiers an authentication of filmed or photographed African penguins against a population database can be performed. This paper provides a detailed technical description of the developed system and outlines the scope and the conditions of application Figure 1. Identification of an African Penguin by its Chest Pattern: Screenshot of Software Prototype; African penguins carry a unique pattern of black spots on their chest. The detection of the chest location and the decomposition of the spot pattern allow checking a photographed individual (here penguin ‘David’ from Bristol Zoo) against a population database. (figure source [18], [19])