AI Enables a Who's Who of Brown Bears in Alaska

Facial recognition AI trained to work on bears

For most people, assessing a bear’s weight or fur color isn’t a top priority during an unexpected encounter in the woods. Instead, the desire to survive generally wins out over lingering to admire the predator’s sizable claws or snout shape. Knowing this, you’d be forgiven for having difficulty differentiating one bear from another. For many ecologists, monitoring individual animals over long periods of time—even years—is crucial to conservation…

AI enables a who's who of brown bears in Alaska

A team of scientists from EPFL and Alaska Pacific University has developed an AI program that can recognize individual bears in the wild, despite the substantial changes that occur in their appearance over the summer season. This breakthrough holds significant promise for research, management, and conservation efforts. The study is published in the journal Current Biology.

A ’Who’s Who’ of brown bears in Alaska

29.01.2026 - A team of scientists from EPFL and Alaska Pacific University has developed an AI program that can recognize individual bears in the wild, despite the substantial changes that occur in their appearance over the summer season. This breakthrough holds significant promise for research, management, and conservation efforts.