AI面部识别技术如何帮助保护美洲狮(上)

This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I'm Ashleigh Papp.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是阿什利·帕普。

Mountain lions are now posing for their close ups.

山狮正在为它们的特写摆姿势。

Researchers based in the greater Yellowstone National Park area have figured out a new way to identify these cats by using facial recognition.

黄石国家公园的研究人员发现了一种通过面部识别来识别这些猫的新方法。

And this method is proving to be a better way to monitor these highly elusive creatures.

这种方法被证明是监测这些极其难以发现的生物的更好方法。

Mountain lions are just really, really hard to directly observe.

山狮真的很难直接观察到。

They're just so cryptic and secretive.

它们只不过是太神秘莫测了。

And so we've had to find these non-invasive methods, they're often called to, to get information about a mountain lion population.

我们必须找到这些非侵入性的方法，他们经常被要求去获取关于山狮种群的信息。

That’s Peter Alexander, a research biologist based in Kelly, Wyoming, who led the research project.

这是彼得·亚历山大，怀俄明州凯利的一位研究生物学家，领导了这项研究项目。

One tool that researchers like Alexander are using is a camera trap.

像亚历山大这样的研究人员正在使用的一种工具是抓拍相机。

The traps, which are about the size of a shoe box or even a coffee cup, are attached to something that's along the animal's regular path, like a tree that the puma has territorially scraped.

这些抓拍相机大约有一个鞋盒甚至一个咖啡杯大小，被安装在动物经常走过路劲上，比如美洲狮领土内路过的一棵树。

When motion is detected, the trap gets triggered, resulting in a snapshot of the mountain lion as it strolls by.

当检测到移动时，这个抓拍相机就会被触发，从而得到美洲狮漫步经过时的快照。

The cameras even have an infrared flash so that nighttime photos are captured without disturbing the animal.

这种相机甚至有红外闪光灯，以便无需打扰动物就可以拍摄夜间照片。

Researchers around the world use this type of tool to estimate population numbers and overall abundance of species.

世界各地的研究人员使用这种工具来估计物种的数量和总体丰富度。

They comb through the images, sometimes using machine learning algorithms, and analyze them to identify individuals.

他们仔细搜查图像，有时使用机器学习算法，分析算法来识别个体。

But according to Alexander, there's a problem with this method when it comes to ID'ing mountain lions:

但根据亚历山大的说法，这种方法在识别美洲狮时存在一个问题:

Tigers that's kind of the classic example of using cameras for individual identity.

老虎是使用摄像头来识别个体身份的典型例子。

Because those stripes, they're like a fingerprint.

因为那些条纹，就像指纹一样。

And so a cougar, they do not have any of those really conspicuous stripes on their sides.

因此，作为一只美洲狮，它们的身体两侧没有任何真正明显的条纹。

That’s because nearly all pumas around the world, with exceptions of distinguishing things like scars, have light, sandy colored fur down their sides.

这是因为世界上几乎所有的美洲狮，除了像疤痕这样的区别特征外，它们的身体两侧都只有浅沙色的皮毛。

The scientific name for a mountain lion, Puma concolor, literally translates to "one color".

山狮的学名美洲狮，字面意思是“一种颜色”。

This lack of unique coloration on the sides of their bodies means that researchers like Alexander can't usually tell if one puma crosses a camera trap five times, or if five individual animals pass by.

它们身体两侧缺乏独特的颜色，这意味着像亚历山大这样的研究人员通常无法区分是一只美洲狮经过抓拍相机五次，还是五只不同的美洲狮经过了抓拍相机。

However, it’s a different story when it comes to their facial markings — they're kind of a show stopper.

然而，当谈到他们的面部标记时，情况就不同了--它们让人印象深刻。