Abstract
ABSTRACT Bat boxes can be employed to provide short-term mitigation for the loss of trees with bat roost potential. Traditionally bat box utilisation (by long-tailed bats) has been difficult to confirm in NZ, partly due to a lack of published survey techniques to confirm bat box utilisation when bats are not present at the time of sampling. While environmental deoxyribonucleic acid (eDNA) has been widely applied as a biomonitoring tool, it has not been used previously in the context of bat box surveys in New Zealand. Here we present a method for collecting eDNA from bat boxes using swabs and test the efficacy of eDNA in validating bat box utilisation as confirmation of roosting. Bat boxes were deployed by the Hamilton City Council as part of the bat mitigation strategy for the Southern Links Project in southern Hamilton. The eDNA method confirmed a total of 25 boxes out of the 73 (34%) included in this study were being utilised by long-tailed bats. The results indicate that eDNA can be applied with confidence to demonstrate box use, even at very low and infrequent occupancy rates.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
