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Discrimination Of Individual Tigers (Panthera Tigris) From Long Distance Roars, An Ji, Michael T. Johnson, Edward J. Walsh, Joann Mcgee, Douglas L. Armstrong

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper investigates the extent of tiger (Panthera tigris) vocal individuality through both qualitative and quantitative approaches using long distance roars from six individual tigers at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, NE. The framework for comparison across individuals includes statistical and discriminant function analysis across whole vocalization measures and statistical pattern classification using a hidden Markov model (HMM) with frame-based spectral features comprised of Greenwood frequency cepstral coefficients. Individual discrimination accuracy is evaluated as a function of spectral model complexity, represented by the number of mixtures in the underlying Gaussian mixture model (GMM), and temporal model complexity, …