TY - JOUR
T1 - catRlog
T2 - a photo-identification project management system based in R
AU - Keen, Eric M.
AU - Wren, Julia
AU - O'Mahony, Eadin
AU - Wray, Janie
N1 - Funding: Sewanee Office of Undergraduate Research, Save Our Seas Foundation, Willow Grove Foundation, the Zumwalt family, LUSH Charity Pot, Tides Canada, the Mitacs Accelerate program, WWF-Canada, and the Victoria Foundation.
PY - 2022/6/1
Y1 - 2022/6/1
N2 - Photo-identification (photo-ID) databases can comprise versatile troves of information for well-studied animal populations and, when organized well and curated carefully, can be readily applied to a wide range of research questions, such as population abundance estimates, meta-population connectivity and social network structure. To bring the potential impact of photo-ID data within reach of a greater number of research groups, we introduce an R-based photo-ID project management system, named 'catRlog'. As a computer directory with custom apps embedded throughout, catRlog serves as a workflow organizer that simplifies, streamlines, and improves the quality of photo-ID data processing. The system can be utilized by research teams in a number of ways, ranging from automated formatting and printing of a photo-ID catalog, to photo-ID matching, thereby creating and expanding a historical catalog, to processing of identification data to generate datasets necessary for site fidelity, mark-recapture, and social association analyses. As an R-based tool, the apps are open-source, cross-platform, readily customizable, and easily updated. catRlog has been tested using photo-ID databases of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) within a mainland fjord system of Pacific Canada, but is a generalized system useful for almost any photo-ID project of any species in any habitat. A detailed user's manual and example dataset are provided.
AB - Photo-identification (photo-ID) databases can comprise versatile troves of information for well-studied animal populations and, when organized well and curated carefully, can be readily applied to a wide range of research questions, such as population abundance estimates, meta-population connectivity and social network structure. To bring the potential impact of photo-ID data within reach of a greater number of research groups, we introduce an R-based photo-ID project management system, named 'catRlog'. As a computer directory with custom apps embedded throughout, catRlog serves as a workflow organizer that simplifies, streamlines, and improves the quality of photo-ID data processing. The system can be utilized by research teams in a number of ways, ranging from automated formatting and printing of a photo-ID catalog, to photo-ID matching, thereby creating and expanding a historical catalog, to processing of identification data to generate datasets necessary for site fidelity, mark-recapture, and social association analyses. As an R-based tool, the apps are open-source, cross-platform, readily customizable, and easily updated. catRlog has been tested using photo-ID databases of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) within a mainland fjord system of Pacific Canada, but is a generalized system useful for almost any photo-ID project of any species in any habitat. A detailed user's manual and example dataset are provided.
KW - Photo-identification
KW - R
KW - Shiny
KW - Mark-recapture
KW - Social network analysis
U2 - 10.1007/s42991-021-00158-7
DO - 10.1007/s42991-021-00158-7
M3 - Article
SN - 1616-5047
VL - 102
SP - 995
EP - 1004
JO - Mammalian Biology
JF - Mammalian Biology
ER -