Individual Animal Re-ID Datasets

A collection of publicly available computer vision datasets for the re-identification of individual animals

Arranged by date of publicatipn. An asterisk (*) marks data derived from video footage. "n.a." indicates that a corresponding publication could not be found. The number of individuals present in each dataset is listed under "IDs". "Annot." denotes the total number of annotated instances.

^{Table Content Source: Towards Automated Chicken Monitoring: Dataset and Machine Learning Methods for Visual, Noninvasive Reidentification}

Year	Dataset	Publication	IDs	Species	Annot.	Preview
2024	Chicks4FreeID	Towards Automated Chicken Monitoring: Dataset and Machine Learning Methods for Visual, Noninvasive Reidentification	50, 2, 2	chicken, duck, rooster	1215, 40, 15
2024	SeaTurtleID2022	SeaTurtleID2022: A long-span dataset for reliable sea turtle re-identification	438	sea turtle	8729
2023	Mammal Club (IISD)	MammalClub: An Annotated Wild Mammal Dataset for Species Recognition, Individual Identification, and Behavior Recognition	218	11 terrestrial mammal species*	33612
2023	Multi-pose dog dataset	Animal Re-Identification Algorithm for Posture Diversity	192	dog	1657
2023	PolarBearVidID	PolarBearVidID: A Video-Based Re-Identification Benchmark Dataset for Polar Bears	13	polar bear*	138363
2023	Sea Star Re-ID	An open-source general purpose machine learning framework for individual animal re-identification using few-shot learning	39, 56	common starfish, Australian cushion star	1204, 983
2022	Animal- Identification- from-Video	A Benchmark Database for Animal Re-Identification and Tracking	58, 26, 9	pigeon*, pig*, Koi fish*	12671, 6184, 1635
2022	Beluga ID	n.a.	788	beluga whale	5902
2022	Happywhale	n.a.	15587	30 different species of whales and dolphins	51033
2022	Hyiena ID	n.a.	256	spotted hyena	3129
2022	Leopard ID	n.a.	430	African leopard	6805
2022	SealID	SealID: Saimaa Ringed Seal Re-Identification Dataset	57	Saimaa ringed seal	2080
2022	SeaTurtleIDHeads	SeaTurtleID: A novel long-span dataset highlighting the importance of timestamps in wildlife re-identification	400	sea turtle	7774
2022	Turtle Recall	n.a.	100	sea turtle	2145
2021	Cow Dataset	Individual dairy cow identification based on lightweight convolutional neural network	13	cow	3772
2021	Cows2021	Towards Self-Supervision for Video Identification of Individual Holstein-Friesian Cattle: The Cows2021 Dataset	182	Holstein-Friesian cattle*	13784
2021	Giraffe Dataset	Revisiting animal photo-identification using deep metric learning and network analysis	62	giraffe	624
2021	iPanda-50	Giant Panda Identification	50	giant panda	6874
2020	AAU Zebrafish Dataset	Re-Identification of Zebrafish using Metric Learning	6	zebrafish*	6672
2020	Animal Face Dataset	Automatic Identification of Individual Primates with Deep Learning Techniques	1040	41 primate species	102399
2020	ATRW	ATRW: A Benchmark for Amur Tiger Re-identification in the Wild	92	Amur tiger*	3649
2020	Lion Face Dataset	Automated Identification of Individuals in Wildlife Population Using Siamese Neural Networks	94	lion	740
2020	NDD20	NDD20: A large-scale few-shot dolphin dataset for coarse and fine-grained categorisation	44, 82	bottlenose and white-beaked dolphin, white-beaked dolphin (underwater)*	2201, 2201
2020	Nyala Data	Automated Identification of Individuals in Wildlife Population Using Siamese Neural Networks	237	nyala	1942
2020	OpenCows2020	Visual identification of individual Holstein-Friesian cattle via deep metric learning	46	Holstein-Friesian cattle*	4736
2019	Bird individualID	Deep learning-based methods for individual recognition in small birds	30, 10, 10	sociable weaver, great tit, zebra finch	51934
2019	Dog Face Dataset	A Deep Learning Approach for Dog Face Verification and Recognition	1393	dog	8363
2018	Cat Individual Images	Cat face recognition using deep learning	518	cat	13536
2018	Fruit Fly Dataset	Can Drosophila melanogaster tell who’s who?	60	fruit fly*	2592000
2018	HumpbackWhaleID	n.a.	5004	humpback whale	15697
2018	MacaqueFaces	Automated face recognition of rhesus macaques	34	rhesus macaque*	6280
2017	AerialCattle2017	Visual Localisation and Individual Identification of Holstein Friesian Cattle via Deep Learning	23	Holstein-Friesian cattle*	46340
2017	FriesianCattle2017	Visual Localisation and Individual Identification of Holstein Friesian Cattle via Deep Learning	89	Holstein-Friesian cattle*	940
2017	GZGC	Animal population censusing at scale with citizen science and photographic identification	2056	plains zebra and Masai giraffe	6925
2016	C-Tai	Chimpanzee Faces in the Wild: Log-Euclidean CNNs for Predicting Identities and Attributes of Primates	78	chimpanzee	5078
2016	C-Zoo	Chimpanzee Faces in the Wild: Log-Euclidean CNNs for Predicting Identities and Attributes of Primates	24	chimpanzee	2109
2016	FriesianCattle2015	Automatic individual Holstein Friesian cattle identification via selective local coat pattern matching in RGB-D imagery	40	Holstein-Friesian cattle*	377
2015	Right Whale Recognition	n.a.	447	North Atlantic right whale	4544
2011	StripeSpotter	Biometric animal databases from field photographs: identification of individual zebra in the wild	45	plains and Grevy’s zebra	820
2009	Whale Shark ID	Estimating population size, structure, and residency time for whale sharks Rhincodon typus through collaborative photo-identification	543	whale shark	7693

Tip

The Wildlife Datasets Toolkit is an open-source toolkit for animal re-ID. It gathers publicly available animal re-ID datasets in one place in an effort to make them more easily accessible and to improve usability. Many of the above listed datasets have been added to the Toolkit.

The MegaDescriptor is a state-of-the-art model for animal re-ID and part of the Wildlife Datasets Toolkit. It was trained on several animal datasets and is species agnostic.

Further publications on the topic

where the dataset could not be found and might not be public OR is only available on request

Year	Publication	Species	Identifying Feature	Note
2025	PetFace: A Large-Scale Dataset and Benchmark for Animal Identification	Cat, Chimp, Chinchilla, Degus, Dog, Ferret, Guinea, Hamster, Hedgehog, Parakeet, Java, Pig, Rabbit	face	d
2024	Transformer-Based Similarity Learning for Re-Identification of Chickens	Chicken	head
2023	A Purely Visual Re-ID Approach for Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris)	Bumblebee	body
2022	Honeybee Re-identification in Video: New Datasets and Impact of Self-supervision	Honey Bees	abdomen
2021	YakReID-103: A Benchmark for Yak Re-Identification	Yak	fur, texture, horns
2021	Robust Re-identification of Manta Rays from Natural Markings by Learning Pose Invariant Embeddings	Manta Rays	belly markings
2021	Dog Nose-Print Identification Using Deep Neural Networks	Dogs	nose
2021	Assessing the performance of open-source, semi-automated pattern recognition software for harbour seal (P. v. vitulina) photo ID	Harbour Seal	body pattern
2020	Bumblebee Re-Identification Dataset	Bumblebee	body	b
2020	A study on giant panda recognition based on images of a large proportion of captive pandas	Giant Panda	face
2020	Automated facial recognition for wildlife that lack unique markings: A deep learning approach for brown bears	Brown Bear	face
2020	Image-based Individual Cow Recognition using Body Patterns	4 Species of Cow	body pattern
2019	ELPephants: A Fine-Grained Dataset for Elephant Re-Identification	Elephants	tusks, body shapes, injury marks	a
2019	Chimpanzee face recognition from videos in the wild using deep learning	Chimpanzee	face
2019	Distinguishing Individual Red Pandas from Their Faces	Red Panda	face
2018	Individual Common Dolphin Identification Via Metric Embedding Learning	Common Dolphin	fin
2018	Individual Minke Whale Recognition Using Deep Learning Convolutional Neural Networks	Dwarf Minke Whale	fin, scars, body
2018	Multi-views Embedding for Cattle Re-identification	Cattle	face
2016	Automated Visual Fin Identification of Individual Great White Sharks	Great White Shark	fin	c
2013	An automated chimpanzee identification system using face detection and recognition	Chimpanzee	face

^{[a] can be accessed through the Wildlife Datasets Toolkit}

^{[b] please refer to data@apic.ai for early access}

^{[c] to obtain a copy please directly contact: Michael C. Scholl, Save Our Seas Foundation (CEO), Michael@SaveOurSeas.com}

^{[d] available on request through this form}

More resources

Website	Dataset	Species	Identifying Feature
Sarasota Dolphin Research Program	GoMDIS	bottlenose dolphins	dorsal fin
Cascadia Research Collective	Photo-ID Project	humpback and blue whale	flukes (humpback whale), dorsal fin (blue whale)
OBIS-SEAMAP	various datasets	various species	-
Species 360	various data	various species	-
Bay Cetology	Bigg’s killer whale photo-ID data	killer whale	-

Further reading

I'd like to highlight this publication from 2021 which gives a great overview of the entire topic Perspectives on Individual Animal Identification from Biology and Computer Vision