A method of recognizing animals includes recognizing a plurality of body parts of a plurality of animals based on at least one image of the animals, in which the plurality of body parts include a plurality of types of body parts, including determining first estimated positions of the recognized body parts in the at least one image. The method includes estimating a plurality of first associations of body parts based on the at least one image of the animals, each first association of body parts associates a body part of an animal with at least one other body part of the same animal, including determining relative positions of the body parts in each estimated first association of body parts in the at least one image. The method includes determining, based on the first estimated positions of the recognized body parts and the relative positions of the body parts in the estimated first associations of body parts, second associations of body parts in which each second association of body parts associates a recognized body part of an animal with at least one other recognized body part of the same animal; and recognizing individual animals in the at least one image based on the second associations of body parts of the animals.