How we can detect pretty much anything

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Hélène Morlon and Anna Papadopoulou |

TED-Ed

• August 2021

Scientists have been staking out a forest in Montana for an animal that's notoriously tricky to find. Camera traps haven't offered definitive evidence, and experts can't identify its tracks with certainty. But within the past decades, researchers have developed methods that can detect even the most elusive species. So how does it work? Hélène Morlon & Anna Papadopoulou dig into DNA metabarcoding. [Directed by Blok Magnaye, narrated by Bethany Cutmore-Scott, music by Cem Misirlioglu and Alex Chumak].