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Seahorse fingerprints: a new individual identification technique

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Abstract

Individual identification is particularly important for ethological studies and sampling design. Previous studies have developed various types of marking by tags and chemical marks, but these methods involve significant manipulation of the individuals. Other studies have reported natural marks as an efficient method for individual recognition. Our study aims to elucidate a new method for natural mark identification of seahorses, which we tested with the endangered Brazilian seahorse Hippocampus reidi. We avoid pseudoreplication by recognizing individuals. Seahorses have a hard bony structure on the top of their heads called the coronet, which has a different shape for each individual, corresponding to a fingerprint. We tagged seahorses in the field with collar tags and photographed their coronets. After two days, we identified seahorses by their photographs and verified their identification with the collar tags. We correctly identified all individuals by fingerprint identification. Although this method was only tested with adults, we suggest that it applies to seahorses in general, as all species possess the coronet structure.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Bruno Meurer and Oliver Pereira for their assistance with the fieldwork. This work was supported by CAPES, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior at the time of the field research. We also thank CNPq (proc. 308792/2009-2) and FAPERJ (proc. E-26/102868/2008 for the research grant to one the authors (M.A.S.A.) while writing this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biologia Roberto Alcantara Gomes, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Avenida São Francisco Xavier, 524, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil, CEP: 20550-011

    Natalie V. Freret-Meurer & Maria Alice S. Alves

  2. Laboratório de Ictiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas e Ambientais, Universidade Santa Úrsula, Rua Fernando Ferrai, 75, Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil, CEP:22231-040

    Natalie V. Freret-Meurer & José V. Andreata

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  1. Natalie V. Freret-Meurer
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  2. José V. Andreata
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  3. Maria Alice S. Alves
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Correspondence to Natalie V. Freret-Meurer.

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Freret-Meurer, N.V., Andreata, J.V. & Alves, M.A.S. Seahorse fingerprints: a new individual identification technique. Environ Biol Fish 96, 1399–1405 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-013-0118-6

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