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Individual Adder ID

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herpetologic2 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote herpetologic2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2006 at 6:07pm

I did this without seeing the previous posts - look at the shape of scale 4!

This one is hard to see the numbers but at least I am having a go eh

Jon

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote herpetologic2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2006 at 6:19pm

My graphic programme is rather limited - as I only have the scanner programme at the moment - but this is a male adder from one of my sites in Hants

Jon

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote administrator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2006 at 6:38pm

Great stuff Jon, take a look at this one that came from my Kent records..

 

Groups 5 and 6 absent.

I'm fairly sure now that really small scales need to be ignored. Hence  I've not scored a 1 for group 5 on the ID above.

Benson mentions being able to spot the scales from 1-2 meters distance for field ID. Something we need to think about also is that not everyone has a digital camera so they might want to use a quick field sketch to form the code. So I'm leaving very small scales as blanks.

Keep at it Jon, the more examples we get the easier it will be to get a working system that we can all use.



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote administrator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2006 at 6:56pm

This is a totally irrelevant post of a piccy of F_vb_wbp_ID_03_08_2005_6211002 just because she is pretty.

It does show though that you wouldn't see the little scale in the field and that groups 5 and 6 are therefore for our purposes absent.



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote administrator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Mar 2006 at 12:07pm
appologies to anyone who was trying to follow the codes, I put up a few errors, this should be corrected now.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote herpetologic2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Mar 2006 at 3:09pm

 

Hi Gemma

heres another one

Code m-Vb-EB-2005-ID6321222

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote administrator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Mar 2006 at 6:43pm

A few more, first one is a repeat of the last example:

 

 

 

mug shots for last three examples, be good if someone else could have a go at these and see if they get the same code?



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote administrator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2006 at 7:50am

I've got my first match using the code  

I had a suspicion during a mitigation I worked on last year that it was possible for adder to return into the works area after they had been moved - so called for additional exclusion fencing at the site.

You'll notice from the examples above that head markings are not particularly variable for this population, so I had not had much success trying to use them to decide whether or not I had rescued any of the individuals twice.

Now I know. The first positive match using scale group counts pulled from dozens of photographs. Once the match came up I was able to check other photographs and confirm it was the same animal. I'll be adopting this system from now on in all my adder work. Paul Benson's work has really made a huge difference to how I can now approach keeping my records.

 

 

I'm really pleased 5241332 was moved out to a safe area before works began, even if she had other ideas

 

 

 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Vicar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2006 at 10:33am

Gemma,

That's excellent ! I particularly like the colour-coding to emphasise the match.

When you get a good set of examples, I'd be very interested to know how many code-matches you get in practice (that are in fact different individuals).

It would be nice to do some stats and to determine 'how unique' to an individual this code is.

BTW, The Sheldon/Bradley paper looks at patternation and does not appear to address scale-counts, which is fair enough as it was a field system. We can probably do better now we are in the age of the affordable digicam.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Vicar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2006 at 12:02pm

Just been thinking again (sorry!)...

A numerical code system obviously rocks, as it facilitates database searches, something very hard to do with graphical information.

But as far as field work goes, occasionally, if you suspect an abnormality, its sometimes too late to check, once you are back at base.

I'm pretty sure I couldn't do a head-scale-group count on every adder I see at a particular site I may be studying. So maybe some graphical information, which could be carried in a folder would be useful to me.

Reading through the Sheldon/Bradley paper again, they suggest that Dorsal apex, eyeline and 'V' are all good discriminators individually, and when all three aspects are taken into consideration together, give a unique result.

I think I would like to develop a diagram system, which would highlight both patternation and head-scale groups, So I could use either.

I'm no artist....but this is along the lines I have been considering...Thoughts ?

Rightmost pic is end result, other images show how I got there, and for comparison.



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