Who am i? Testing I3S contour on the facial mask of the western polecat (mustela putorius)

Individual recognition of wild animals is a fundamental tool to acquire information about the structure and dynamics of animal populations. Recently, individual identification from camera trapping has been successfully applied to Capture-Mark-Recapture (CMR) studies in various taxa. We collected 281 photos of 48 specimens of Western Polecat (Mustela putorius) from various Italian Museums to test the capabilities of I3S contour software to automatically recognize different individuals from their facial mask. After selecting 52 high quality pictures from different specimens, we obtained a 100% success rate of correct individual identification. This suggested that both facial mask pattern and automatic identification might be successfully applied to the study of this highly elusive species through camera trapping.