Image analysis of weaverbird nests reveals signature weave textures
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Date
17/06/2015Author
Grant ID
BB/I019502/1
BB/I019502/1
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Abstract
In nature, many animals build structures that can be readily measured at the scale of their gross morphology (e.g. length, volume and weight). Capturing individuality as can be done with the structures designed and built by human architects or artists, however, is more challenging. Here, we tested whether computer-aided image texture classification approaches can be used to describe textural variation in the nests of weaverbirds (Ploceus species) in order to attribute nests to the individual weaverbird that built them. We found that a computer-aided texture analysis approach does allow the assignment of a signature to weaverbirds’ nests. We suggest that this approach will be a useful tool with which to examine individual variation across a range of animal constructions, not just for nests.
Citation
Bailey , I E , Backes , A , Walsh , P T , Morgan , K , Meddle , S L & Healy , S D 2015 , ' Image analysis of weaverbird nests reveals signature weave textures ' , Royal Society Open Science , vol. 2 , 150074 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150074
Publication
Royal Society Open Science
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2054-5703Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright 2015 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Description
This work was supported by the BBSRC (BB/I019502/1, S.D.H. and S.L.M.), the Roslin Institute Strategic Grant funding from the BBSRC (S.L.M) and the Leverhulme Trust (S.D.H. and P.T.W.), and A.R.B. gratefully acknowledges the financial support of CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil, grant no. 301558/2012-4).Collections
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