2 Identifying species
Now you will look at some real world examples highlighting the challenges of identifying species.
Example 1: Damselflies – counting different species
How many different species of damselfly can you see in the following videos? These damselflies are in mating pairs.
Download this video clip.Video player: Video 1
Transcript: Video 1 A pair of damselflies.
[INSECT BUZZING]
[BIRDS WHISTLING]
[INSECT BUZZING]
Video 1 A pair of damselflies.
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Download this video clip.Video player: Video 2
Video 2 Video footage of a pair of damselflies.
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If you don’t look closely, you might easily mistake the male and female for different species, as they have different colours and markings. Had you not seen them paired up like this, you might have thought there were twice as many species as there really are.