Living with Really Big Cats: Cheetahs, Lions, and Tigers

Posted by Alex in Animal on June 27, 2009 at 1:22 pm

If you think having to "share" your bed with your pet cat is bad, that’s nothing compared to what Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen has to do: the sanctuary worker shares her South African home with really, really big cats: four cheetahs, five lions, and two tigers!

Riana bought her first cheetah, Fiela in 2006, after realising the big cats were in trouble and heading for extinction with only 1000 left in Africa.

She left her full time job working for the department of justice – a position she had held for 22 years – and found temporary employment on a game ranch where she could raise her beloved big cat. [...]

The cats in Riana’s own home are truly part of the family and are allowed to roam freely.

Imagine the size of their litterbox! Amy Oliver of the Daily Mail has more: Link (Photo: John Lienbenberg/Barcroft Media)

 
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Photo-Recognition Software Indentifies Tigers

Posted by Queuebot in Animal, Gadget on March 16, 2009 at 1:42 pm


The stripe patterns on tigers are unique to the individual animal, but sufficiently similar that matching by humans is tedious and imperfect.  The new software automates the process.  The most obvious application is for tracing animals photographed with webcams or "camera-traps", but the data can also be used to match tiger hides offered for sale with known previously living animals to facilitate prosecution of poachers.

Users use coloured dots to indicate the position of the shoulder, hips and tail and the upper and lower margins of the image; the programme does the rest. It essentially unwraps the striped pattern from the tiger’s flank and works out how it would look if it were laid out flat. It then compares the new image to every existing one and gives them a score based on how similar they are. The software is freely downloadable.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Minnesotastan.

 
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