Abstract
Cat predation upon bat species has been reported to have significant effects on bat populations in both rural and urban areas. The majority of research in this area has focussed on observational data from bat rehabilitators documenting injuries, and cat owners, when domestic cats present prey. However, this has the potential to underestimate the number of bats killed or injured by cats. Here, we use forensic DNA analysis techniques to analyze swabs taken from injured bats in the United Kingdom, mainly including Pipistrellus pipistrellus (40 out of 72 specimens). Using quantitative PCR, cat DNA was found in two‐thirds of samples submitted by bat rehabilitators. Of these samples, short tandem repeat analysis produced partial DNA profiles for approximately one‐third of samples, which could be used to link predation events to individual cats. The use of genetic analysis can complement observational data and potentially provide additional information to give a more accurate estimation of cat predation.
Highlights
Bats play an important role in many ecosystems, through pest control, pollination, and/or seed dispersal, and can be found across the world in both rural and urban areas
Two-thirds (48 out of 72) of the bat wing swab samples obtained showed the presence of cat DNA, a value higher than many previous reports based only on observational data, which suggests that cat predation can be more common than has been previously reported
This study demonstrates that forensic DNA analysis techniques can be used to evaluate the possibility of cat predation upon bats, as an alternative to observational data
Summary
Bats play an important role in many ecosystems, through pest control, pollination, and/or seed dispersal, and can be found across the world in both rural and urban areas. No further bat predation was observed following the capture of the male cat (Scrimgeour, Beath, & Swanney, 2012) Cases such as this highlight the concept of prey specialization in cats, with both domestic (Dickman & Newsome, 2015) and feral (Moseby, Peacock, & Read, 2015) cats having been found to show individual preferences for different prey species. A multiplex STR system, known as the “Meowplex,” has been developed which enables genetic individualization of domestic cats through analysis of eleven STR loci and a sex marker on the Y chromosome, SRY (Menotti-Raymond, David, Stephens, Lyons, & O'Brien, 1997; Menotti-Raymond, David, Wachter, Butler, & O'Brien, 2005) This principle has been successfully used in forensic cases, for example, by matching the DNA profile of a cat hair found on an item of evidence linked to a homicide to that of the suspect's pet cat, Snowball (Menotti-Raymond, David, & O'Brien, 1997). The genetic data were compared to information collected from bat rehabilitators on (a) bat characteristics, that is, species, age, gender, and location; (b) wing tear characteristics and placement; and (c) suspected cause of wing tear injuries
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