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| The Antarctic Humpback Whale Program (AHWP) |
Identifying individuals from natural markings
Humpback whales can be individually identified from photographs taken of the underside of their flukes (tails); each bearing its own unique markings, scars and coloring patterns. This technique, widely known as photo-identification, allows us to study several aspects of humpback whale life history, including group composition, associations between individuals and, on the longer term, population parameters such as abundance, birth, and death rates. By comparing photographs taken in different encounters, it also allows us to identify short to long-range movements of individuals among areas, their fidelity to specific regions, and their home ranges. We will use digital SLR cameras to photo-identify humpback whales in the area primarily to study group composition and behavioural preferences, distribution, movement patterns and site fidelity. Photographs of individuals will be compared to humpback whale catalogues from other research groups working in the Antarctic and other parts of the world for the same purposes.
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