Welcome to the AnimalCLEF26! ๐ข๐ฆ๐
\nAnimalCLEF26 is the second edition of the AnimalCLEF challenge organized within the [https://www.imageclef.org/LifeCLEF2026](LifeCLEF lab). This year, the focus is on individual animal discovery: instead of matching images to a fixed list of known animals, your goal is to cluster the test images so that each cluster corresponds to a unique individual. The competition uses a discovery setting, meaning the training and test sets are disjoint (individuals in the test set do not appear in the training set).
\nIn real wildlife monitoring, you often start with a pile of images for which no identity catalog exists (or it's incomplete). Before you can track animals over time, you need the discovery step: group photos by individual, so new individuals can be added to a database with minimal manual effort. That's exactly what this challenge is designed to push forward across multiple species, diverse backgrounds, differing viewpoints, and varying numbers of photos per animal.
\n๐จโ๐ฌ Lukรกลก Picek @picekl is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at MIT and a PI at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen [Czechia], specializing in applied machine learning, including species recognition, species distribution modeling, and animal identification. Since 2021, he has co-organized the CVPR-FGVC and LifeCLEF workshops and is the lead organizer of the newly accepted CVPR tutorial on Animal Re-identification. As a competition chair at FGVC workshops, he has helped organize or independently led multiple competitions with thousands of participants on Kaggle.
\n๐งโ๐ป Lukรกลก Adam @wildlifedatasets is a senior scientist at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Czech Republic. Lukรกลก works on animal re-identification with an emphasis on applying machine learning and mathematical models to sea turtle research. His cooperation on sea turtles includes multiple NGOs and universities in England, Kenya, Egypt, the Emirates and other countries. His second expertise lies in the optimization, identification, and control of power electronic devices.
\n๐ฌ Kostas Papafitsoros @KPapafitsoros - is a lecturer in Mathematical Data Science at Queen Mary University of London, with dual expertise in two distinct domains: Mathematical Imaging & Inverse Problems and Wildlife Conservation, with a particular focus on sea turtles. He is working on a wide range of topics, from deep learning in imaging to sea turtle ecological studies, and is an expert in sea turtle re-identification with 18 years of experience in the field.
\n๐โโ๏ธ ** Dean Williams ** is a full professor at Texas Christian University. He is a leader of a lab whic uses a mix of fieldwork and molecular techniques to help inform the management of pests and species of conservation concern. Major projects include the reintroduction of Texas horned lizards, the genetic diversity of invasive aquatic weeds, and using genetic techniques to identify the sex and species of bat fatalities at wind energy facilities.
\nAs your hosts, we're here to help, so do not mind asking any questions! ๐
\nHave a great Experience! ๐๐ข ๐ฆ ๐๐โโ๏ธ
", "messages": [ { "id": 3414866, "postDate": "2026-02-27T20:18:28.737Z", "content": "Welcome to the AnimalCLEF26! ๐ข๐ฆ๐
\nAnimalCLEF26 is the second edition of the AnimalCLEF challenge organized within the [https://www.imageclef.org/LifeCLEF2026](LifeCLEF lab). This year, the focus is on individual animal discovery: instead of matching images to a fixed list of known animals, your goal is to cluster the test images so that each cluster corresponds to a unique individual. The competition uses a discovery setting, meaning the training and test sets are disjoint (individuals in the test set do not appear in the training set).
\nIn real wildlife monitoring, you often start with a pile of images for which no identity catalog exists (or it's incomplete). Before you can track animals over time, you need the discovery step: group photos by individual, so new individuals can be added to a database with minimal manual effort. That's exactly what this challenge is designed to push forward across multiple species, diverse backgrounds, differing viewpoints, and varying numbers of photos per animal.
\n๐จโ๐ฌ Lukรกลก Picek @picekl is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at MIT and a PI at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen [Czechia], specializing in applied machine learning, including species recognition, species distribution modeling, and animal identification. Since 2021, he has co-organized the CVPR-FGVC and LifeCLEF workshops and is the lead organizer of the newly accepted CVPR tutorial on Animal Re-identification. As a competition chair at FGVC workshops, he has helped organize or independently led multiple competitions with thousands of participants on Kaggle.
\n๐งโ๐ป Lukรกลก Adam @wildlifedatasets is a senior scientist at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Czech Republic. Lukรกลก works on animal re-identification with an emphasis on applying machine learning and mathematical models to sea turtle research. His cooperation on sea turtles includes multiple NGOs and universities in England, Kenya, Egypt, the Emirates and other countries. His second expertise lies in the optimization, identification, and control of power electronic devices.
\n๐ฌ Kostas Papafitsoros @KPapafitsoros - is a lecturer in Mathematical Data Science at Queen Mary University of London, with dual expertise in two distinct domains: Mathematical Imaging & Inverse Problems and Wildlife Conservation, with a particular focus on sea turtles. He is working on a wide range of topics, from deep learning in imaging to sea turtle ecological studies, and is an expert in sea turtle re-identification with 18 years of experience in the field.
\n๐โโ๏ธ ** Dean Williams ** is a full professor at Texas Christian University. He is a leader of a lab whic uses a mix of fieldwork and molecular techniques to help inform the management of pests and species of conservation concern. Major projects include the reintroduction of Texas horned lizards, the genetic diversity of invasive aquatic weeds, and using genetic techniques to identify the sex and species of bat fatalities at wind energy facilities.
\nAs your hosts, we're here to help, so do not mind asking any questions! ๐
\nHave a great Experience! ๐๐ข ๐ฆ ๐๐โโ๏ธ
", "rawMarkdown": "**Welcome to the AnimalCLEF26!** ๐ข๐ฆ๐\n\nAnimalCLEF26 is the second edition of the AnimalCLEF challenge organized within the [https://www.imageclef.org/LifeCLEF2026](LifeCLEF lab). This year, the focus is on individual animal discovery: instead of matching images to a fixed list of known animals, your goal is to cluster the test images so that each cluster corresponds to a unique individual. The competition uses a discovery setting, meaning the training and test sets are disjoint (individuals in the test set do not appear in the training set).\n\n### Why is this important?\nIn real wildlife monitoring, you often start with a pile of images for which no identity catalog exists (or it's incomplete). Before you can track animals over time, you need the discovery step: group photos by individual, so new individuals can be added to a database with minimal manual effort. That's exactly what this challenge is designed to push forward across multiple species, diverse backgrounds, differing viewpoints, and varying numbers of photos per animal.\n\n## Who are we?\n\n๐จโ๐ฌ **Lukรกลก Picek** @picekl is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at MIT and a PI at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen [_Czechia_], specializing in applied machine learning, including species recognition, species distribution modeling, and animal identification. Since 2021, he has co-organized the CVPR-FGVC and LifeCLEF workshops and is the lead organizer of the newly accepted CVPR tutorial on Animal Re-identification. As a competition chair at FGVC workshops, he has helped organize or independently led multiple competitions with thousands of participants on Kaggle.\n\n๐งโ๐ป **Lukรกลก Adam** @wildlifedatasets is a senior scientist at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Czech Republic. Lukรกลก works on animal re-identification with an emphasis on applying machine learning and mathematical models to sea turtle research. His cooperation on sea turtles includes multiple NGOs and universities in England, Kenya, Egypt, the Emirates and other countries. His second expertise lies in the optimization, identification, and control of power electronic devices.\n\n๐ฌ **Kostas Papafitsoros** [@KPapafitsoros](https://www.kaggle.com/KPapafitsoros) - is a lecturer in Mathematical Data Science at Queen Mary University of London, with dual expertise in two distinct domains: Mathematical Imaging & Inverse Problems and Wildlife Conservation, with a particular focus on sea turtles. He is working on a wide range of topics, from deep learning in imaging to sea turtle ecological studies, and is an expert in sea turtle re-identification with 18 years of experience in the field.\n\n๐โโ๏ธ ** Dean Williams ** is a full professor at Texas Christian University. He is a leader of a lab whic uses a mix of fieldwork and molecular techniques to help inform the management of pests and species of conservation concern. Major projects include the reintroduction of Texas horned lizards, the genetic diversity of invasive aquatic weeds, and using genetic techniques to identify the sex and species of bat fatalities at wind energy facilities.\n\nAs your hosts, we're here to help, so do not mind asking any questions! ๐ \n\n**Have a great Experience!** ๐๐ข ๐ฆ ๐๐โโ๏ธ", "votes": 1 } ], "comments": [], "raw_markdown_by_id": { "3414866": "**Welcome to the AnimalCLEF26!** ๐ข๐ฆ๐\n\nAnimalCLEF26 is the second edition of the AnimalCLEF challenge organized within the [https://www.imageclef.org/LifeCLEF2026](LifeCLEF lab). This year, the focus is on individual animal discovery: instead of matching images to a fixed list of known animals, your goal is to cluster the test images so that each cluster corresponds to a unique individual. The competition uses a discovery setting, meaning the training and test sets are disjoint (individuals in the test set do not appear in the training set).\n\n### Why is this important?\nIn real wildlife monitoring, you often start with a pile of images for which no identity catalog exists (or it's incomplete). Before you can track animals over time, you need the discovery step: group photos by individual, so new individuals can be added to a database with minimal manual effort. That's exactly what this challenge is designed to push forward across multiple species, diverse backgrounds, differing viewpoints, and varying numbers of photos per animal.\n\n## Who are we?\n\n๐จโ๐ฌ **Lukรกลก Picek** @picekl is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at MIT and a PI at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen [_Czechia_], specializing in applied machine learning, including species recognition, species distribution modeling, and animal identification. Since 2021, he has co-organized the CVPR-FGVC and LifeCLEF workshops and is the lead organizer of the newly accepted CVPR tutorial on Animal Re-identification. As a competition chair at FGVC workshops, he has helped organize or independently led multiple competitions with thousands of participants on Kaggle.\n\n๐งโ๐ป **Lukรกลก Adam** @wildlifedatasets is a senior scientist at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Czech Republic. Lukรกลก works on animal re-identification with an emphasis on applying machine learning and mathematical models to sea turtle research. His cooperation on sea turtles includes multiple NGOs and universities in England, Kenya, Egypt, the Emirates and other countries. His second expertise lies in the optimization, identification, and control of power electronic devices.\n\n๐ฌ **Kostas Papafitsoros** [@KPapafitsoros](https://www.kaggle.com/KPapafitsoros) - is a lecturer in Mathematical Data Science at Queen Mary University of London, with dual expertise in two distinct domains: Mathematical Imaging & Inverse Problems and Wildlife Conservation, with a particular focus on sea turtles. He is working on a wide range of topics, from deep learning in imaging to sea turtle ecological studies, and is an expert in sea turtle re-identification with 18 years of experience in the field.\n\n๐โโ๏ธ ** Dean Williams ** is a full professor at Texas Christian University. He is a leader of a lab whic uses a mix of fieldwork and molecular techniques to help inform the management of pests and species of conservation concern. Major projects include the reintroduction of Texas horned lizards, the genetic diversity of invasive aquatic weeds, and using genetic techniques to identify the sex and species of bat fatalities at wind energy facilities.\n\nAs your hosts, we're here to help, so do not mind asking any questions! ๐ \n\n**Have a great Experience!** ๐๐ข ๐ฆ ๐๐โโ๏ธ" } }