TheSecondInternationalFIT 1for1CheetahWorkshop ... ·...

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The Second International FITforCheetah Workshop N/a ‘an ku se Wildlife Sanctuary, Namibia. 1516 June 2015 Sponsored by: Chester Zoo, The N/a ‘an ku se Foundation and WildTrack Caption: From L to R. Juarez Pezzutti, Steve Swann, Luis Heyns, Jenny Noach, Sky Alibhai, Zoe Jewell, Danene van der Westhuyzen, Vincent van der Merwe, Louisa RichmondCoggan, Stuart Munro, Dale Van Bommel, Linda Van Bommel, Rebecca Schoonover, Chavoux Luyt, Tendai Nekatambe

Transcript of TheSecondInternationalFIT 1for1CheetahWorkshop ... ·...

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 The  Second  International  FIT-­‐for-­‐Cheetah  Workshop  

                                                 N/a  ‘an  ku  se  Wildlife  Sanctuary,  Namibia.  15-­‐16  June  2015                        Sponsored  by:    Chester  Zoo,  The  N/a  ‘an  ku  se  Foundation  and  WildTrack      

                                                                   

   

     

Caption:    From  L  to  R.    Juarez  Pezzutti,  Steve  Swann,  Luis  Heyns,  Jenny  Noach,  Sky  Alibhai,  Zoe  Jewell,      Danene  van  der  Westhuyzen,  Vincent  van  der  Merwe,  Louisa  Richmond-­‐Coggan,  Stuart  Munro,  Dale  Van  Bommel,    Linda  Van  Bommel,  Rebecca  Schoonover,  Chavoux  Luyt,  Tendai  Nekatambe  

 

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                                                                                                                               Participants      

Name   Email   Affiliation   Country  Juarez  Pezzuti     [email protected]   Universidade  Federal  do  Para   Brazil  Chavoux  Luyt   [email protected]   Stellenbosch  University   South  Africa  Linda  Van  Bommel   [email protected]   Australian  National  University   Australia  Dale  Van  Bommel   [email protected]   Software  Engineering   Australia  Louisa  Richmond-­‐Coggan   [email protected]   Cheetah  Conservation  Fund   Namibia  Jenny  Noach     [email protected]   AfriCat  Foundation  Okonjima   Namibia  Luis  Heyns   [email protected]   AfriCat  Foundation  Okonjima   Namibia  Steve  Swann   [email protected]   AfriCat  North,  Etosha   Namibia  Tendai  Nekatambe   [email protected]   Painted  Dog  Conservation  

Zimbabwe  Zimbabwe  

Danene  van  der  Westhuyzen   [email protected]   Namibian  Hunters  association   Namibia  Rebecca  Schoonover   [email protected]   Duke  University   USA  Vincent  van  de  Merwe   [email protected]   Endangered  Wildlife  Trust     South  Africa  Stuart  Munro   [email protected]   Naankuse   Namibia  Rudie  Van  Vuuren   [email protected]   Naankuse   Namibia  Marlice  Van  Vuuren   [email protected]   Naankuse   Namibia  Florian  Weise   [email protected]   Manchester  Metropolitan  

University  UK  

Zoe  Jewell   [email protected]   WildTrack/SAS/Duke   USA  Sky  Alibhai   [email protected]   WildTrack/SAS/Duke   USA    

 Background  to  the  workshop  

   

At  present,  nearly  all  cheetah  monitoring  across  sub-­‐Saharan  Africa  strongly  relies  on  the  use  of  invasive  and  expensive  

research  methods.  These,  for  example,  include  capture-­‐mark-­‐release  operations  where  animals  are  live  trapped,  fitted  

with  tracking  units  and  subsequently  followed  in  the  field  to  directly  obtain  information  from  observations.  However,  

the  entire  process  is  very  costly.  For  example  GPS  tracking  units  may  cost  up  to  USD  4,000  per  individual,  and  they  are  

therefore  only  useful  to  study  small  sample  populations.  Moreover,  it  is  impractical  and  unethical  to  capture  and  mark  

every  cheetah  in  a  given  free-­‐ranging  population  to  make  inferences  on  the  species  at  large.  Tracking  units  are  also  

restricted  to  application  in  adults  only  and  short  operational  periods  of  18-­‐36  months.  They  can  cause  significant  

discomfort  to  study  animals.    In  addition  to  these  drawbacks,  invasive  handling  and  tagging  of  cheetah  also  incurs  a  

safety  risks  because  animals  need  to  be  immobilised  in  remote  settings.  

 

Non-­‐invasive  and  more  cost-­‐effective  monitoring  options,  such  as  camera  traps  and  FIT,  have  only  insufficiently  been  

employed  thus  far.  Considering  the  landscape  scale  at  which  cheetah  research  is  carried  out  in  Africa,  indirect  methods  

will  be  required  in  future  for  reliable  population  assessments  -­‐  especially  in  remote  areas  like  Namibia.  In  this  regard,  

FIT  holds  several  crucial  advantages  over  other  existing  research  methods.  For  example,  footprint  identification  can  be  

conducted  opportunistically  when  tracks  of  free-­‐ranging  cheetah  are  encountered  during  other  activities.  The  technique  

incurs  very  little  financial  costs  because  it  can  be  implemented  with  a  standard  digital  camera  and  scale  only.  It  does  

also  not  require  specialised  training  of  participants.  Thus,  the  simple  FIT  protocol  for  effective  data  collection  can  be  

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rolled  out  to  larger  communities  of  researchers  as  well  as  landowners  and  others,  significantly  increasing  the  sample  

effort  towards  population  assessments  and  capturing  information  from  previously  un-­‐sampled  range  areas.  Finally,  FIT  

provides  multi-­‐purpose  data  for  researchers.  Not  only  does  FIT  offer  a  reliable  assessment  of  population  structure  

(including  measurements  of  ID,  gender  and  possibly  age),  it  further  also  provides  a  new  avenue  for  monitoring  cheetah  

movements  without  the  necessities  of  capture  and  marking.  Most  importantly,  in  Africa’s  savannah  landscapes,  often  the  

only  accessible  data  from  wild  cheetah  are  their  footprints  along  roads  and  dry  riverbeds,  and  FIT  exploits  this  vastly  

under-­‐utilised  source  of  information  effectively.  

 

Due  to  its  simplicity  FIT  has  potential  to  be  used  by  many  different  cheetah  stakeholders.  These  include,  but  are  not  

limited  to,  researchers,  private  landowners,  livestock  farmers,  nature  guides  and  professional  hunters.  The  data  

collection  protocol  requires  no  specialised  equipment,  or  training,  and  can  easily  be  transferred  to  and  applied  by  large  

interest  groups.  Public  science  approaches,  in  which  the  general  public  actively  participates  in  data  collection  for  

scientific  purposes,  are  more  and  more  used  around  the  world  to  yield  comprehensive  data  sets,  especially  for  far  

ranging  and  widespread  species.  In  Namibia,  for  example,  there  is  considerable  interest  from  the  professional  hunting  

fraternity  as  well  as  livestock  producers  to  assist  researchers  with  large  carnivore  population  assessments  in  order  to  

devise  evidence  based  conservation  and  utilisation  programmes  for  these  species.  Moreover,  the  public  is  already  

actively  supporting  a  species  distribution  atlas  for  all  carnivores.  The  atlas  simply  works  on  an  open  access  online  link.  

Through  local  initiatives  of  promotion,  we  anticipate  that  Cheetah  FIT  will  also  be  rolled  out  at  large  scales  and  well  

beyond  Namibia’s  boundaries.    

 

In  the  first  international  FIT  for  Cheetah  workshop,  held  at  N/a  ‘an  ku  se  in  2011,  the  different  elements  of  FIT  were  

presented  and  participants  engaged  in  discussing  how  these  could  best  be  used  for  effective  monitoring.    WildTrack  

requested  participants  collaborate  to  make  further  tracks  available.      

 

Subsequently  additional  tracks  were  collected  by  participants  and  added  to  strengthen  the  training  database.    A  robust  

algorithm  resulted.    Blind  trials  gave  100%  accuracy  in  determining  individual,  sex  and  age-­‐class.      

 

The  software  was  then  streamlined  within  one  superstructure,  allowing  the  user  to  process  images,  apply  the  FIT  model  

analytics  and  map  animal  distributions,  all  within  JMP  data  visualization  software,  providing  a  comprehensive  one-­‐stop  

solution  for  conservation  monitoring.  

 

The  primary  aim  of  second  workshop  was  provide  basic  instruction  in  the  use  of  the  new  FIT  v.1,  and  then  offer  the  

software  free-­‐of-­‐charge  to  participants  who  wanted  to  use  it  for  conservation  monitoring.    The  workshop  was  also  

designed  to  provide  a  forum  for  discussion  and  establishing  future  collaboration  between  cheetah  and  other  

conservation  biologists  interested  in  using  non-­‐invasive  approaches.        

   

This  workshop  was  held  at  N/a’an  ku  sê  Lodge  and  Wildlife  Sanctuary  in  Namibia,  a  country  which  supports  

approximately  one  third  of  the  global  cheetah  population.  The  locality  is  ideal  for  this  purpose  due  to  its  proximity  to  

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Namibia’s  international  airport.  In  addition,  the  Wildlife  Sanctuary  houses  orphaned  and  rehabilitated  cheetah  which  

can  be  used  for  demonstration  purposes.  The  associated  wildlife  reserve  and  surrounding  farmland  areas  provide  a  

realistic  opportunity  for  free-­‐range  trials  and  demonstrations  utilising  wild  cheetah  tracks.  

   

Workshop  Outcomes    

 Ø Eighteen  participants  from  six  countries  attended.    

 Ø WildTrack  demonstrated  the  imaging,  data  analytical  and  mapping  capabilities  of  FIT  in  JMP  (Figs  1-­‐9  below)  

 Ø WildTrack  gave  FIT  software  to  all  participants  and  provided  directions  for  a  free  30  day  download  of  JMP  

software.    Participants  were  invited  to  apply  to  Friends  of  JMP  for  a  no-­‐cost  full  copy  after  this  expired.    

Ø Stuart  Munro  organized  and  demonstrated  FIT  image  collection  in  the  field  with  captive  cheetah    

Ø Linda  Van  Bommel  presented  her  work  on  the  effectiveness  of  FIT  for  discrimination  of  individual  African  lions,  and  on  livestock  guardian  dogs  in  Australia    

Ø Juarez  Pezzutti  presented  his  work  on  wildlife  conservation  in  the  Brazilian  Amazon  region  with  specific  reference  to  local  indigenous  expertise  and  the  potential  use  of  FIT  for  monitoring  jaguars.    

Ø Tendai  Nekatambe,  a  Master’s  student  at  the  National  University  of  Science  and  Technology  in  Zimbabwe,  presented  her  work  on  conserving  Zimbabwe’s  Painted  Hunting  Dogs,  with  reference  to  the  use  of  footprints  in  distinguishing  this  species  from  local  domestic  dogs.    

Ø Chavoux  Luyt  wrote  an  Android/Windows  app.  to  guide  novices  through  the  process  of  taking  images  for  FIT,  as  part  of  an  app.  for  farmers  to  record  signs  of  wildlife.    

Ø Rebecca  Schoonover  volunteered  to  coordinate  an  FIT  user-­‐group  and  investigate  the  best  means  of  making  incoming  images  and  data  freely  available  for  future  development.    

Ø Stuart  Munro  and  Jack  Somerville  from  N/a’an  ku  sê  made  a  video  showing  the  sequence  of  protocol  points  for  image  collection  for  an  upcoming  paper  on  FIT  for  cheetah  in  the  Journal  of  Visualised  Experiments  (JoVE).    

Ø Munro/Jewell/Alibhai  gave  interviews  for  Naankuse.    

Ø All  participants  engaged  in  evening  discussions  on  the  use  of  FIT  in  monitoring  strategies.    

Ø Danene  van  der  Westhuyzen,  representing  The  Namibian  Hunters  Association,  expressed  interest  in  trialling  FIT  to  provide  reliable  density  estimates  to  help  regulate  trophy  hunting.  

 Ø A  live  analysis  of  footprints  collected  from  Aiko  revealed  that  his  current  prints  separated  clearly  those  collected  7  

years  ago  (Fig  7.  below).  This  revealed  the  need  for  regular  updates  of  individuals  within  FIT  and  a  new  collection  from  many  of  the  original  animals.  

 Ø Florian  Weise,  who  spearheaded  the  development  of  FIT  for  Cheetah,  and  is  currently  writing  up  his  PhD,  Skyped  

into  the  meeting  to  provide  background  on  the  project  and  communicate  his  hopes  for  the  future.  

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                                                                                                                     The  next  steps  for  Cheetah  FIT  

 

Ø To  begin  a  structured  experimental  sampling  of  cheetah  ranges  across  Namibia.  Collaborators  will  include    N/a’an  ku  sê,  WildTrack,  Duke  University  and  the  Polytechnic  of  Namibia.    

Ø To  publish  an  invited  paper  on  FIT  for  Cheetah  in  the  Journal  of  Visualised  Experiments  (JoVE),  entitled:  ‘Spotting  the  Cheetah:    A  non-­‐invasive  footprint  identification  technique  to  classify  individuals’.    The  manuscript  is  in  progress.    

Ø To  extend  the  existing  collaboration  between  Duke  University,  WildTrack  and  N/a’an  ku  sê  for  the  long-­‐term  structured  application  of  FIT  in  Namibia,  and  for  being  rolled-­‐out  to  other  range  countries  in  Africa.      

 Ø To  place  FIT  as  the  foundation  for  an  innovative  suite  of  non-­‐invasive  and  cost-­‐effective  tools  for  monitoring,  anti-­‐

poaching  and  wildlife  conflict  mitigation.    N/a’an  ku  sê,  WildTrack,  North  Carolina  State  University,  Duke  University  and  the  Polytechnic  of  Namibia  are  already  collaborating  on  this  initiative.            

                                                       

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 The  following  screenshots  demonstrate  some  of  the  capabilities  of  FITv1  as  a  one-­‐stop  tool  for  wildlife  conservation,  incorporating  image  optimization  and  feature  extraction,  data  analytics  and  mapping  all  within  JMP  data  visualization  software.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Fig.  1.    The  main  menu  window  of  FIT  for  cheetah,  where  options  are  given  to  select  the  analytical  platform.    FIT  software  is  customized  for  each  species.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

Fig  2.    The  Image  Feature  Extraction  window  in  FIT  where  measurements  are  made  of  the  footprint.  Many  of  the  features  such  as  resizing  and  rotation  of  the  image,  substrate  depth,  extraction  of  derived  points  etc.  are  now  fully  automated  in  the  latest  version.  

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     Fig.3    Robust  cross-­‐validated  pair-­‐wise  analysis  based  on  a  customized  model  developed  by  Wildtrack  forms  the  core  of  the  analytical  process  which  allows  the  identification  of  individuals  giving  both  the  prediction  for  the  number  of  cheetahs  and  the  classification  of  the  trails.                    

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                    Fig.  4A               Fig.  4B    Fig.  4.  The  final  output  from  the  Robust  Cross-­‐Validated  Pair-­‐wise  Analysis  is  in  the  form  of  a  cluster  dendrogram    providing  the  predicted  number  of  cheetahs  and  a  visual  picture  of  the  relationship  between  the  trails.  Fig  4A  was  generated  using  a  50%  (19  cheetahs)  holdback  and  FIT  prediction  was  19  cheetahs  but,  more  importantly,  it  can  be  seen  that  the  classification  of  the  clusters  was  100%  accurate.  In  the  newer  version  of  FIT,  we  have  introduced  a  measure  of  confidence  around  the  prediction  and  Fig  4B  shows  the  %  likelihood  of  their  being  17  cheetahs  (25.5%).          

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   Fig.  5.    Sex  and  age-­‐class  classification  can  be  performed  using  discriminant  analysis  in  FIT  for  unknown  individuals.                                

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       Fig.  6.  Examples  of  test  footprints  of  Jamu  and  Balu  from  N/a’ankuse  for  a  blind  trial  to  establish  individual  identification,  sex  and  age  class  using  FIT        

   Fig.7.  Sex  identification  in  the  cheetah  using  discriminant  analysis.  This  highlights  the  data  distribution  for  the  male  Aiko  in  2008  (black  squares)  and  the  shift  for  the  same  individual  in  2015  (brown  circles).    

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   Fig  8A    New  home-­‐range  add-­‐in  for  JMP  using  alpha  hull  constructions.    This  figure  shows  the  minimum  convex  polygon  areas  for  three  animals.  

 

   

Fig.  8B  shows  a  more  realistic  home-­‐range  estimation  for  one  of  the  animals  above,  achieved  by  adjusting  the  alpha  value.    The  central  area  is  the  adjusted  home-­‐range,  still  incorporating  all  the  points.      

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 Fig.9.    A  new  ‘Distance’  add-­‐in  tool  allows  the  user  to  calculate  areas  and  distances  from  utilization  distribution  map