Multiple species in a single subject set

Now that Season 2 is up, we have a lot more species showing up on camera. Not just the wintertime deer, turkeys, canids and raccoons, but also tree swallows, sandhill cranes, bears and more! It's exciting, particularly when more than one type of animal shows up in a single subject set. If it's been a while since you read through the tutorial (specifically Slide 4), you might be unsure of how to correctly classify all the variety you might see. For example, take this great image, found recently by citizen scientist renren and their wife (who doesn't have her own account, but was the mastermind behind highlighting this image for us!):


The first thing many viewers see are the two deer moving through the picture. Easy peasy - you've almost certainly classified deer before. Click 'Deer', then record the number, behavior, antlers, etc. Hit 'Identify' and then STOP! Don't hit 'Done' or even 'Done and Talk.' There's more work to be done!

If you look closely, you'll notice some additional eyeshine behind the deer. Two pairs of eyes on the ground, one pair peeking out on the left side of the tree trunk just in front of the second deer, and a fourth on the right side of the same tree. From that fourth, you can tell that these are raccoons - the chunky body and striped tail are keys to their identity.


So long as you didn't hit 'Done', you can repeat the process you used to classify the deer to ALSO classify the raccoons. Once all four of the raccoons have been entered, you can now safely click 'Done and Talk' and tell us all about your fabulous #multiplespecies find!

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