Detection of prey DNA in bat feces: Effects of time since feeding, meal size, and prey identity

Abstract

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Issues of under-representation in quantitative DNA metabarcoding weaken the inference about diet of the tundra vole Microtus oeconomus

“…While DNA traces of the previous meals might still be present in the voles' digestive system, we did our best to minimize their effect in our design. In the absence of studies on the DNA decay of food in the digestive tracts of rodents (but see Schattanek et al 2021), we selected a conservative time-frame for the different feeding trials that is compatible with the digestion of diet's hard remains. Furthermore, the RRA of the two other plants (Salix and Avenella) seemed to correlate well in meal mixtures and faecal samples.…”

Prey size is more representative than prey taxa when measuring dietary overlap in sympatric forest bats

“…Intra-year resampling was separated by 3, 5, or 9 nights per bat. All resampled individuals were treated as independent observations with the assumption that adaptations for flight-increased intestinal absorption and reduced intestinal volume-lead to short retention times of digesta (Caviedes-Vidal et al, 2007) with prey only detectable up to 10-20 hours after consumption (Schattanek et al, 2021).…”

Experimental feeding validates nanofluidic array technology for DNA detection of ungulate prey in wolf scats

“…An alternative approach to measure detection probability of target prey DNA from scats is to study captive animals fed with a known diet. Although this approach may be time consuming and logistically complex, it provides experimentally reliable estimates of method sensitivity and the factors affecting it (Pompanon et al, 2012; Schattanek et al, 2021).…”