INTRODUCTION

The ability to recognize individual animals is a
key feature in tracking individuals through various
life-history stages, usually through capture-markrecapture
studies. Effective management of animal
populations requires realistic estimates of population
numbers. One way to gather information on population
numbers is through the identification of unique
individuals. Thus, the value of an animal increases
each time it can be identified and recovered for a
specific research program. Artificial tagging of individual
animals is common, having been carried out
on a wide variety of organisms, such as birds (Verner
et al. 2000, Bart et al. 2001, Zimmerman et al. 2009),
the Florida manatee Trichechus manatus latirostris