[ramanan]

This catch and release pattern is quite common in many wildlife surveys.

For example, when estimating tiger populations, instead of painting a white dot, rangers set up camera traps to take photos. Then they can use stripe patterns as a signature for subsequent re-appearances. Quite an interesting intersection for image AI with statistical counting methods.

[MereInterest]

Are there adjustments that need to be made for non-random sampling in that case? I'd imagine that with any territorial animal, a stationary camera is most likely to see the same animal multiple times.

[ramanan]

True. I’m no expert in this area, but there are a lot more factors too - including territorial range and even different camera locations.