catRlog:a photo-identification project management system based in R

• Published in: Mammalian Biology
• Main Authors: Keen, Eric M., Wren, Julia, O'Mahony, Eadin, Wray, Janie
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Photo-identification; R; Shiny; Mark-recapture; Social network analysis; Canada; Pacific; Balaenoptera physalus; Megaptera novaeangliae
• Online Access: https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/en/researchoutput/catrlog(bd05802a-a6d9-4dd9-be7b-892ebf1b4f33).html; https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-021-00158-7

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.