\u201cPoop doesn’t fly around in the dark and it\u2019s easy to\ncollect,\u201d said Walker, who along with Chambers is co-director of the Bat\nEcology and Genetics Lab<\/a> at NAU. \u201cYou can walk around in the\nday with a collection kit in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other and\nsample in 10 leisurely minutes, instead of the tour de force required by mist\nnetting (when we net bats we often have four cars, eight people and are out\nuntil midnight eating Oreos to stay awake). Hence, the fecal method\nis friendlier to bats and us, and it gives a broader timeframe for\nthe bat species that were using a roost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since publishing the Species\nfrom Feces research<\/a> in 2016, which enabled the\nresearchers to correctly identify 92 percent of bats to the species level (the\nother 8 percent can be identified to genus) throughout the world for which\ngenetic data are available, they\u2019ve helped other researchers and wildlife\nmanagers use the assay to better understand local populations. However, they\nwondered what else they could learn from fecal\npellets, which they call the \u201cgold nuggets\u201d of wildlife biology thanks to their\nwealth of information about biodiversity, diet and disease without the need for\ntrapping, handling or even observing the animals in question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot, as\nit turns out, which led Walker, Chambers and a host of collaborators from NAU\nand the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) to \u201cA Fecal Sequel: Testing\nthe limits of a genetic assay for bat species identification,\u201d published today\nin PLOS\nOne<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nfollow-up study asked a number of different questions, all of which centered\naround potential obstacles in extracting usable DNA from bat guano:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Walker,\nwho was the lead author on the paper, connected the various questions and\ndetermined what was needed to move forward with the various arms of the study. Then-master\u2019s\nstudent Abby Tobin<\/strong> used her work in both ecology and caving to study how\ndifferent gate types at the entrances of abandoned mines influence bats\u2019 use of\nthe mines. Colin Sobek<\/strong>, a genetics research specialist with the School\nof Forestry and the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute and genetics Ph.D.\nstudent Dan Sanchez<\/strong> have been part of the Species from Feces research\nfor years and extracted and tested the DNA in the lab. Viacheslav Fofanov<\/strong>,\na professor in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems\nmasterminded the lab test for the species rarity question. Nancy Simmons,\ncurator in the Department of Mammalogy at AMNH, conducted bat research in the\nNeotropics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To test the assay in a variety of circumstances, researchers stored fecal pellets in both a high-humidity cave and a low-humidity cave near Flagstaff and let them age for up to 30 months. Every six months they would go into the caves and retrieve a subset of pellets, then run the assay on pellets at six, 12, 18, 24 and 30 months. For the rarity test, the team collected pure guano from three bat species and combined the pellets into mock communities, with the rare bat guano represented as a minuscule ratio to the other two. To determine the utility of the assay as a survey tool, they collected single samples of 200 pellets from more than 40 abandoned mines across the Southwest and performed visual surveys; they did the same at bat roosts in archaeological sites in the Belizean tropics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On\nthe whole, the results weren\u2019t surprising, Walker said. The assay identified\nthe rare bat DNA and verified that humidity contributed to more rapid\ndegradation than time. It also added to what the original research showed: The\nSpecies from Feces assay is an exceptional tool for conducting bat surveys at\nroosts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nbiggest surprise came from the gold nuggets found in the tunnels of Maya\ntemples. Walker said two of the three bat species found there feed on\nvertebrates\u2014they found DNA from a local rodent in the guano of the big-eared\nwoolly bat and cow DNA in the guano of the vampire bat. They also found DNA of\nthe teardrop mosquito fish in almost all of the Belizean tunnels, which likely\ncame from ponds from which bats drink. That\u2019s significant because it shows bats\nthemselves acting as an environmental DNA filter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cImportantly,\nour work illustrated that our assay performs well in the tropics, but likely\nrequires feces that is relatively fresh (less than 12 months old),\u201d Walker\nsaid. \u201cFor the tropics it would be best to collect guano from active roosts.\nDNA does well in dry and dark conditions. We\u2019re lucky that for most\nsubterranean systems in the U.S. Southwest we have exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re\nalso lucky to have the bat species that we do, she said. Bats are a critical\npart of the ecosystem, and they\u2019re in danger both from changing habitat and\nfrom a deadly fungus sweeping the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost people appreciate bats because of the ecosystem\nservices they provide, particularly eating insects. Insectivorous bats eat an\nenormous number of insects (a single little brown bat can eat up to 1,000\nmosquitoes an hour, according to Bat Rescue), which can include crop pests and\npathogen vectors like mosquitoes,\u201d Walker said. \u201cIn Flagstaff, with\nWest Nile virus detected last summer, we should be particularly appreciative of\nbats. However, the fungal disease called white-nose syndrome is killing\nmillions of bats in the U.S. and is now on the West Coast and Texas. It hasn’t\nyet arrived in Arizona, and we don’t know for certain which species will be\nimpacted. Hence, having a genetic tool that can be used to rapidly survey\nsubterranean roosts is important and will allow us to better understand bat\nspecies presence before and after the disease arrives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Walker\ndeveloped this assay to extract DNA from feces and test it to identify the\nspecies from which it came. Although scientists have been testing fecal DNA for\ntwo decades, Species from Feces was revolutionary in the extent of the coverage\nresearchers got across the entire taxonomic order of bats, how reliable and\nprecise the assay is and the ease with which researchers can now study bats. They\nnot only identified which bat species use particular roosts, but scientists\nalso have used the Species from Feces assay to confirm visual identifications\nof captured bats, identify bat carcasses at windfarms, screen fertilizer to\ndetermine the species that contributed guano, detect nectar-feeding bats from\nsaliva on agave flowers and evaluate the effect gates on the entrance to mines\nhave on neighboring bat populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Species from Feces team has done work for more than 100 federal and state agencies, universities, museums and environmental consultancies in the past three years. Additionally, this assay has expanded well beyond bats; the lab does a lot of mammalian diet work and has identified plant and animal diet in everything from African lions and leopards to wombats and kangaroos to mule and pronghorn to giraffes and hippos. Walker will soon add a 31,000-year-old giant ground bolus sloth to that list to determine if she can identify what the animal ate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Dan](\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/29613174882_c4bb811290_k-1024x683.jpg\")
![\"Colin](\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/29099768793_3c602cbbab_k-1024x683.jpg\")
![\"Species](\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/29576179232_7e94d58a7f_k-1024x696.jpg\")
What\nis Species from Feces?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"bats\"](\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/29060882024_83016ce600_k-1024x807.jpg\")
![\"NAU](\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/NAU_primary-281_3514-1-e1536853679171.png\")
<\/figure>
Heidi Toth | NAU Communications
(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"