Abstract
Large carnivore feeding ecology plays a crucial role for management and conservation for predators and their prey. One of the keys to this kind of research is to identify the species composition in the predator diet, for example, prey determination from scat content. DNA‐based methods applied to detect prey in predators’ scats are viable alternatives to traditional macroscopic approaches, showing an increased reliability and higher prey detection rate. Here, we developed a molecular method for prey species identification in wolf (Canis lupus) scats using multiple species‐specific marker loci on the cytochrome b gene for 18 target species. The final panel consisted of 80 assays, with a minimum of four markers per target species, and that amplified specifically when using a high‐throughput Nanofluidic array technology (Fluidigm Inc.). As a practical example, we applied the method to identify target prey species DNA in 80 wolf scats collected in Sweden. Depending on the number of amplifying markers required to obtain a positive species call in a scat, the success in determining at least one prey species from the scats ranged from 44% to 92%. Although we highlight the need to evaluate the optimal number of markers for sensitive target species detection, the developed method is a fast and cost‐efficient tool for prey identification in wolf scats and it also has the potential to be further developed and applied to other areas and large carnivores as well.
Highlights
Understanding of species’ feeding ecology is of critical importance when studying species interactions such as predator–prey dynamics (Symondson, 2002), and it can be a crucial tool to inform management and conservation (Newsome et al, 2016; Xiong et al, 2017)
Large carnivore feeding ecology plays a crucial role for management and conservation for predators and their prey
We developed a molecular method for prey species identification in wolf (Canis lupus) scats using multiple species-specific marker loci on the cytochrome b gene for 18 target species
Summary
Understanding of species’ feeding ecology is of critical importance when studying species interactions such as predator–prey dynamics (Symondson, 2002), and it can be a crucial tool to inform management and conservation (Newsome et al, 2016; Xiong et al, 2017). The aim of our study was to develop a molecular method using nanofluidic array technology with species-specific molecular markers on the mitochondrial cyt b gene, for prey species identification in wolf (Canis lupus) scats for 14 potential prey species and four other carnivores in Scandinavia. Wild ungulates such as moose (Alces alces) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) represent the bulk of wolves’ diet (Sand et al, 2005, 2008). As an example of the method applicability, we used our prey species detection procedure on a set of wolf scats collected within the genetic monitoring of the Scandinavian wolf population (Åkesson et al, 2016; Liberg et al, 2012)
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