Sara Ferreira1, Gert-Jan Jeunen1, Helen R. Taylor1, Neil, J. Gemmell1
1Department of Anatomy, University Of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
An understanding of the diets and dietary preferences of threatened species is essential component of successful conservation management. However, this can be challenging for elusive organisms with a varied omnivorous diet, such as birds. Traditionally, diet was characterized by relying on observations of feeding behaviour or morphological analysis of undigested food remains in scats. Both analyses are known to incur biases and provide information on just a subset of the species consumed¹. Novel techniques, such as DNA metabarcoding, allow us to extract the DNA from faecal samples and identify those species consumed through the amplification and sequencing of short amplicon fragments from well characterized gene regions.
In this study, we describe the diet of two threatened omnivorous birds endemic to New Zealand, i.e., the South Island Robin (Petroica australis) and stitchbird (Notiomystis cincta; hihi). We use four primer assays targeting both plant and animal DNA contained within faecal samples through DNA metabarcoding. Additionally, we test four different pre-extraction storage methods, liquid nitrogen, on ice, room temperature, and room temperature in RNAlater, to ascertain what protocol is optimal when collecting faecal samples in remote areas. Preliminary sequencing results identify differences in animal diet composition between two populations of South Island Robins.
¹. Mumma, M. A., Adams, J. R., Zieminski, C., Fuller, T. K., Mahoney, S. P., Waits, L. P. (2016) A comparison of morphological and molecular diet analyses of predator scats. Journal of Mammalogy. 97(1):112-120.
Biography:
Sara Ferreira is a Research Technician at the Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, New Zealand. She has a Masters degree in Marine Biology from the University of the Algarve, Portugal, and her work experience is mainly in Molecular Biology. She started working as a Research Technician at the University in 2010, and in 2012 became associated with the Gemmell Lab. The group’s recent interest in environmental DNA led Sara to become involved in this type of research, in particular with biodiversity projects.