Dartmouth-sponsored researchers are diligently working to identify hundreds of individual giraffes from their unique skin patterns with an innovative software program created by computer sciences chair Dr. Hany Farid. They are in the forefront of a race against time to save the giraffe from extinction.

The program, called Wild-ID, has enabled Dartmouth researchers to conduct the largest-ever individually-based demographic study of the giraffe, including population size, birth and death rates and migration patterns. They hope the new wealth of science-based data will inform governments and decision-makers to develop effective conservation measures before it is too late.

Watch the online video of Dr. Derek Lee and his partner and spouse Monica Bond working among the giraffes in Tarangire and feeding digital images into their field computer Wild-ID program.