A Semi-automatic Approach to Photo Identification of Wild Elephants

Alessandro Ardovini, Luigi Cinque, Francesca Della Rocca, Enver Sangineto

Abstract: Zoologists studying elephant populations in wild environments need to recognize different individuals from photos taken in different periods of time. Individuals can be distinguished by the shape of the nicks on their ears. Nevertheless, shape comparison is not trivial due to a highly cluttered background. We propose a method for partially, non-connected curve matching able to compare photos of elephant ears.