TurtleTurtle

The Science

There are plenty of published scientific works as well as sea turtle conservation efforts associated with the game:

• Our sea turtle photo-database from Zakynthos Island, where all the photos are taken, spans 25 years, and is one of the oldest (if not the oldest) sea turtle photo-database of this kind worldwide. It has supported many studies, from estimating survival rates, studying in-water sea turtle behaviour in cleaning stations, and aggressive interactions in foraging grounds, to quantifying ecotouristic pressure and measure its evolution over time.
• We are developing state-of-the-art automated photo-ID methods (MegaDescriptor). We have also developed the WildlifeDatasets library which is a constantly updated library providing easy access to multi-species photo-databases for algorithmic training and testing.
• Our published dataset SeaTurtleID2022, on which this game is largely based on, is the first public large-scale, long-span dataset with sea turtle photographs captured in the wild (Zakynthos Island). It contains 8729 photographs of 438 unique individuals collected within 13 years, making it the longest-spanned dataset for animal re-identification.
• Recently, we conducted a breakthrough study in sea turtle Photo-ID: We quantified for the first time the inherent similarity between the left and the right facial profiles in three sea turtle species. In particular we showed that the similarity of the left and right profiles of the same individuals is higher than those of different individuals. This similarity can be detected and quantified by state-of-the-art artificial intelligence-based photo-ID methods, including MegaDescriptor. As a result one can now match opposite profile photos of the same individual which was so far not possible with the current sea turtle photo-ID practices, either manual or automatic. This also leads to increased photo-ID accuracies and flexibility in photo-ID data collection protocols as very often in practice only a single facial profile is available. Can you also match opposite profiles of the same individuals? Try it on the high difficulty levels of our game!
• Finally, we have published some general practical guidelines for sea turtle photo-ID as part of the upcoming Manual on “Research and Management Techniques for the Conservation of Sea Turtles”, by the IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group.