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Fisher Print Matching Tutorial
Fisher footprint

A progressive tutorial in learning to identify individual fishers from the footprints they leave at track plates.

The tutorial, an outgrowth of a Master's thesis project, is organized with two different levels of detail. For those who merely want to get a basic understanding of how the process works, the introductory level is sufficient.  The Advanced Training track is for those who wish to learn enough to actually apply the method. Because the method depends on the use of high resolution images, full pursuit of the Advanced Training track is most practical for those using a high speed Internet connection.

Each step in the tutorial will introduce a new subject area or concept. After digesting that page, the student can choose to either go into that subject area in greater detail, by jumping to the Advanced Training, or move on to the next subject.

Contents
  • Fisher Foot Morphology - The structures responsible for the footprint details we will use to identify individual fishers.
  • 3 Levels of Detail - An organized look at the morphology of the metacarpal pad and how it relates to footprints.
  • Pad Patterns are Unique - Evidence supporting the notion that each foot is unique and that this can be seen in the footprints.
  • Introduction to the Matching Method - How to compare two footprints to see if they were made by the same foot.
  • Matching Practice - Try the method yourself, with practice images to download.
  • Testing Your Matching Abilities - A blind test of the method you can use to evaluate your proficiency.
Although this tutorial is designed to be followed in a progressive fashion, a navigation bar is provided at the top of each page to allow easy movement between subject areas.



Begin the Tutorial   Begin





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