"We found that most (bears) did not respond to approaching tourist vehicles or human noise, suggesting the bears in the tourist area are habituated to humans," Roth said, adding that drivers can help to avoid polar bear encounters by adjusting their speed and the angle of their car's approach. The scientists are also investigating the significance of polar bear play and how a bear's physical condition affects its activity. They are also looking at general use of remote cameras, since the technique could be used to monitor other animals in the wild. A similar project, utilizing comparable computer software, is the ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo Identification Library. As with polar bears, once a whale shark has been photographed, it is been "virtually tagged," since the sharks sport unique sets of white spots that allow scientists to identify individuals. "The contrast of white whale spots on darker skin is well suited to a machine vision technique known as 'blob extraction,' which measures the locations and dimensions of pixel groups of a single color," explained Zaven Arzoumanian of the Universities Space Research Association and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "Identifying individuals repeatedly through photography can also inform biological observations, such as age of maturity, growth rate and foraging ecology," he added. Both past and recent images are welcome for the polar bear photo database project. If you plan to take such photographs in future, Waterman notes that she and her team are particularly interested in sharp, clearly focused close-ups of the bear's facial profile, taken perpendicular to the camera's access. The Polar Bear Photo-Identification Library Web site contains detailed instructions and examples. Related Links: |
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