What is FIT?
Developed from indigenous tracking techniques, FIT is a simple, affordable method for tracking species and identifying individual animals with only their footprints. Consider how easily we can identify any human by their fingerprints; with FIT's algorithm, it's possible to apply a similar principle to the species we study. Without high-tech (and costly) gear like GPS collars or camera traps, it can be tricky to gather accurate data on wildlife populations, particularly those which are difficult to observe firsthand in the field. But field researchers will know that signs of wildlife are all around us, and the FIT system allows you to form a richer, more comprehensive picture of these populations and their ranges in a non-invasive way. Using customized species algorithms that analyze footprints, FIT can gather crucial data on sex and age, as well as differentiating between individual animals within a population.
The algorithm, built using captured footprint data from captive and wild animals, has an accuracy of approximately 95% for identifying individuals. When used alone, FIT is a wonderful way to map the presence of species and populations within nearby ecosystems. When used alongside other types of conservation technology in the field, such as drones, camera traps, eDNA forensics, or bioacoustics, FIT serves as a powerful aid for enhancing and analyzing data, and filling in gaps.
This infographic explains how zookeepers working with carnivore species have used FIT to benefit field researchers studying endangered big cats in the wild. Although this infographic is specific to animals in captivity, the principles for gathering data in the field are largely the same.
Using FIT
Unlike other highly specialized tracking techniques, FIT is accessible to anyone who regularly encounters wildlife footprints. The only equipment needed to participate with FIT is a digital camera, a computer, a method for obtaining a field location (such as a GPS unit or location app), a scale (a ruler), and either a voice-tag or pen and pencil. Its lack of specialized equipment and ease of use also makes FIT a great way to engage local communities and classrooms with wildlife.
Below, the team behind WildTrack walks through the FIT process. Again, though this video features captive cheetahs, the principles for collecting footprints and utilizing FIT in field research are similar.
How Can You Get Involved?
As we've said, FIT is a great way to immerse yourself in the world of wildlife monitoring and contribute to vital data on species' ranges and populations. By using EpiCollect and iNaturalist, citizen scientists of all skill levels can gather data from the footprints you encounter, whether in a professional or amateur scientist setting! Your gathered data can be used in two ways: developing stronger algorithms from the footprints of known animals, and mapping overall species distribution by photographing any footprints encountered in the wild.
To engage with FIT here on WILDLABS, join the new FIT group and start posting on the forum. Zoe Jewell, Amy Fitzmaurice, and Karin. R. Schwartz from WildTrack lead this group and are ready to help you integrate FIT into your conservation tech projects!
You can also find interactive tutorials on collecting footprint data on the WildTrack website.
Test Your Footprint Skills!
Below, we've compiled FIT photos from an otter, tapir, fisher, cougar, black rhino, Amur tiger, raccoon, and coyote. Can you tell them apart? Give it your best shot! (Scroll down for answers.)
1.![fit print 1](https://www.wildlabs.net/sites/default/files/styles/feature_full/public/footpring1.jpg?itok=MPIxchYZ)
Big cat or a canine species?
2. ![fit print 2](https://www.wildlabs.net/sites/default/files/styles/feature_full/public/footprint2.jpg?itok=IKFKwHtl)
What about this one?
3. ![fit print 3](https://www.wildlabs.net/sites/default/files/styles/feature_full/public/footprint3.png?itok=u3yDqtGh)
Oddly human-looking prints. From who?
4. ![fit print 4](https://www.wildlabs.net/sites/default/files/styles/feature_full/public/footprint5.jpg?itok=5e_RTKe1)
The scale indicates this is quite a big species!
5. ![fit print 5](https://www.wildlabs.net/sites/default/files/styles/feature_full/public/footprint6.jpg?itok=VSwATbgd)
No, this isn't a dinosaur print, but the classic three-toe pattern is a similar shape!
6. ![fit print 6](https://www.wildlabs.net/sites/default/files/styles/feature_full/public/footprint7.jpg?itok=j1TbWvsH)
Who made this little cluster of prints?
7. ![fit print 7](https://www.wildlabs.net/sites/default/files/styles/feature_full/public/footprint8.jpg?itok=EA_5fzHG)
Not a housecat!
Ready to check your answers? Here you go: 1. Amur Tiger, 2. Coyote, 3. Raccoon, 4. Black Rhino, 5. Tapir, 6. Fisher, and 7. Otter.
Now can you imagine identifying individual animals and knowing their age and sex based on these photos? It's harder than it sounds, which is why that identification algorithm is so important!
Now that you've gotten your first taste of footprint tracking, head over to the disucssion tab to start collaborating with others in the tracking community!
Group curators
WildTrack
Research, development and implementation of non-invasive montoring for endangered species
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Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCru)
Conservation Scientist
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WILDLABS & Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
I'm the Bioacoustics Research Analyst at WILDLABS. I'm a marine biologist with particular interest in the acoustics behavior of cetaceans. I'm also a backend web developer, hoping to use technology to improve wildlife conservation efforts.
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Sustainability Manager for CERES Tag LTD. An animal health company; animal monitoring, conservation, & anti-poaching/ rural crime. Wildlife, livestock, equine & companion. #CeresTrace #CeresWild #CeresRanch
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Systems Engineer at Edge Impulse, experiencce with hands-on edge machine learning for wildlife conservation
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Zoologist, Ecologist, Conservation Biologist
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Wildlife Drones
Wildlife Drones has developed the world’s most innovative radio animal-tracking system using drones so you can track your radio-tagged animals like never before.
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Purna Man Shrestha is a program coordinator of mountain spirit, Nepal. He has 6 years of working experience in human wildlife interaction focusing on wildcats, and conflicts. He has a good knowledge on wildlife survey techniques, field survey, stakeholder engagement
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WildLabs will soon launch a 'Funding and Finance' group. What would be your wish list for such a group? Would you be interested in co-managing or otherwise helping out?
5 June 2024
February 2024
November 2023
event
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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I always thought a tracker that attached like a slap bracelet would be sweet. |
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Emerging Tech, Footprint Identification Technique (FIT), Sensors | 8 months ago | |
The theme of the 2021 Women in Science Day is ‘Women Scientists at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. Our... |
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Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) | 3 years 6 months ago | |
The IUCN Otter Specialist Group is hosting a Virtual Eurasian Otter Workshop on 26-28.February.2021. There will be invited talks and... |
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Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) | 3 years 6 months ago | |
For WildTrack's friends and supporters, we're offering a special @GivingTuesday opportunity by matching $ for $ donations up to $2,... |
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Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) | 3 years 8 months ago | |
Dear Zoe, I wonder whether FIT would be good for species-level (rather than individual level) identification of small mammals. We use track tunnels to get prints of dormice (3... |
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Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) | 3 years 9 months ago | |
Hi Ellie, thanks for your interest. So I have two possible explanations why the camera traps I used did not release, even though I found otter droppings directly in front of my... |
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Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) | 3 years 11 months ago | |
Hi Emanuel, welcome to our group! If you have any questions or ideas to share, please don't hesitate to reach out. With best wishes, Zoe |
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Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) | 3 years 11 months ago | |
Samara P. El-Haddad Wildlife Conservation Junior Specialist at Lebanon Reforestation Initiative (LRI)... |
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Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) | 4 years ago | |
How neat, thanks for sharing! We'd love to hear more about your drone project once it's underway, please keep us updated on that one! |
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Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) | 4 years 1 month ago | |
Author: Jody Tucker, U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region Carnivore Monitoring Program Figures below text in order (Fig 1... |
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Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) | 4 years 1 month ago | |
Thank you for these details. I was about to ask the issues with different substrates. Now I understand the limitations and possibilities. Yeah, I agree that each of these... |
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Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) | 4 years 1 month ago | |
What better way to celebrate Endangered Species Day 2020 than try a new technology to protect them? If you're planning to be out and... |
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Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) | 4 years 3 months ago |
New WILDLABS Funding & Finance group
5 June 2024 3:24pm
6 June 2024 1:38am
6 June 2024 4:16am
Ignite Labs: Space for Nature & Biodiversity Series
21 January 2024 2:46pm
Autonomizing Small Mammal Traps
29 November 2023 6:26pm
1 December 2023 7:37pm
One thing to keep in mind is that researchers often want or at least would like to get certain metadata on the tagged animals like sex, size, weight, apperent fitness etc. Without these the questions you can ask can get rather limited. Also, it will also often be highly desired to take samples like blood, hair, other tissue e.g.
In addition, there can be cases where it may be better not to tag the animal if it is not the right age group, is too small to carry the tag, seems like it is not in a good shape etc.
I think it will take quite an effort to get automated systems (capture robots) to make these decisions to a degree you can trust.
Cheers,
Lars
9 December 2023 9:01pm
Thanks for the reply, Lars! I appreciate the input I am genuinely curious if there is a market for such a thing, all data is good data.
10 December 2023 2:30am
I always thought a tracker that attached like a slap bracelet would be sweet.
The Wildlife Society Conference
19 June 2023 5:59am
WildTrack Women in Science Day, 11 February 2021
11 February 2021 1:48pm
Eurasian Otter Workshop to highlight Conservation Planning, Threats, and Research Advances for Monitoring Otter Populations
25 January 2021 5:09pm
Helping humans and tigers to co-exist in India
30 November 2020 7:08pm
Get To Know FIT!
8 May 2020 6:36pm
29 June 2020 4:04pm
Upper level undergraduates
29 June 2020 8:14pm
Can we take this to email Roland? : [email protected]
Happy to have a video call sometime to discuss how we can help!
Z
10 November 2020 11:20am
Dear Zoe,
I wonder whether FIT would be good for species-level (rather than individual level) identification of small mammals. We use track tunnels to get prints of dormice (3 species) on carbon soot (metal surface covered by soot). We do have bibliographical reference of those species (Glis glis, Dryomys nitedula, Muscardinus avellanarius) and other "usual suspects" (e.g. Apodemus sp.). Fom some of them, we also have some tracks from captive animals (although not as many as you describe you need in the videos, but we could arrange for more in the future...once the dormice wake up again in the Spring). Is this something worth exploring? We can manually do the id for our current project, but I am interested in developing know-how for the future as well (and use the current project to achieve this).
Alternatively - and equally interestingly for us - we could work on individual level identification of animals of a small Dryomys nitedula population that we have within our research institute's ground (and hence we can easily do lots of field tests etc.) - ideally involving an undergraduate student in the process as well (come Spring 2020). Would this be something that we could work on, with some guidance - collaboration for you - with the intent of getting a model out for peopel to use across Europe?
Maybe we could discuss sometime? My email is [email protected]
regards,
Christos
Monitoring Otters using FIT: Challenges and Discoveries!
6 September 2020 4:52pm
9 September 2020 11:06pm
So interesting, thanks for sharing! It's always really helpful for the community to hear about the trial and error that goes into fieldwork. I also never realized that heat-sensing camera traps don't work on certain animals like otters, really curious to learn more - are there strategies to deal with that problem?? Maybe someone from our camera trap group could chime in on that aspect?
11 September 2020 2:26pm
Hi Ellie,
thanks for your interest. So I have two possible explanations why the camera traps I used did not release, even though I found otter droppings directly in front of my camera (and later my happy face that I must have gotten them this time even though it was not the case).
I. The Cameras I used in that specific campaign where quite old and I am not too experienced in using them so maybe I did not set them up correctly. This is something I will try to overcome with newer cameras and more training in my next field campaign whenever COVID allows me to travel again...
II. Otters are very well insulated having more than 70k of hair per cm2. I found some fabulous infrared images in a book from Irene Weinberger that showed how little heat otters actually emit and that otters only differed significantly from the background radiation at there feet and nose. So another explanation of mine is that unless these bodyparts are captured by the camera's sensor the camera won´t release.
I will try new Cameratraps the next time I will have the opportunity to do fieldwork in Portugal and will let you know how it went. Until then I will try to work my way around it using footprints :-).
Tracking rhino using FIT - new paper in PeerJ!
14 August 2020 6:48pm
28 August 2020 2:36pm
I am interested with this discussion
28 August 2020 4:34pm
Hi Emanuel, welcome to our group! If you have any questions or ideas to share, please don't hesitate to reach out.
With best wishes,
Zoe
Development of Non-Invasive Techniques for Identifying Eurasian Otter Populations in Lebanon
21 July 2020 4:06pm
Thinking Outside the Box: Using FIT for Box Turtle Shell ID
8 July 2020 5:22pm
14 July 2020 4:10am
The issue of how community-gathered data can be made safe yet accessible is rapidly emerging as a huge challenge in conservation biology. We'd love to hear input from the Wildlife Crime Forum on this.
15 July 2020 8:46am
Hi,
Our tortious tracks look like this. we still haven't started to work on this project.
tracking is the best way to monitor the population of Kleinmann's tortoise in its andy habitat.
Hopefully, we will be able to begin next year a project with drones.
16 July 2020 7:37pm
How neat, thanks for sharing! We'd love to hear more about your drone project once it's underway, please keep us updated on that one!
Advancing Monitoring of Endangered Forest Carnivores using Footprint Identification Technology (FIT)
29 June 2020 10:42pm
Did you know that Wildtrack's Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) can be used to promote human-wildlife coexistence!
3 June 2020 6:47pm
18 June 2020 4:38am
Hi Santhosh, welcome to the FIT community, we're glad you joined!
Karin has explained very nicely the difference between the footprint identification technique (FIT) that we use and the old 'pugmark' technique. I'd say that every technique, FIT included, has strengths and weaknesses. FIT, for example, will not work in an area where footprints can't be found. The pugmark technique was very reliant on expert assessment and was prone to inaccuracies for that reason, but on the plus side it could be rolled out over a huge area and engaged the traditional ecological knowledge that is part of India's cultural heritage. The camera traps that replaced it have had their fair share of problems (difficulties arranging the traps for optimal sampling, cameras being stolen, cameras are expensive etc). Our belief is that using several different non-invasive techniques for any one survey yields the most reliable results. I hope this helps.
18 June 2020 9:17pm
Thank you Karin for these details, I didnt read the latest papers, before writing my comment. Interesting to know about morphometrics usage (along with image processing).
18 June 2020 9:21pm
Thank you for these details.
I was about to ask the issues with different substrates. Now I understand the limitations and possibilities.
Yeah, I agree that each of these techniques have their own limitations. Thank you, these inputs definitely help.
Endangered Species Day Friday 15th May!
14 May 2020 9:04pm
5 June 2024 4:14pm