Title
Using molecular diet analysis to inform invasive species management: A case study of introduced rats consuming endemic New Zealand frogs
Date Issued
01 May 2019
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Egeter B.
Roe C.
Peixoto S.
Easton L.
Pinto J.
Bishop P.
Robertson B.
Universidade do Porto
Publisher(s)
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Abstract
The decline of amphibians has been of international concern for more than two decades, and the global spread of introduced fauna is a major factor in this decline. Conservation management decisions to implement control of introduced fauna are often based on diet studies. One of the most common metrics to report in diet studies is Frequency of Occurrence (FO), but this can be difficult to interpret, as it does not include a temporal perspective. Here, we examine the potential for FO data derived from molecular diet analysis to inform invasive species management, using invasive ship rats (Rattus rattus) and endemic frogs (Leiopelma spp.) in New Zealand as a case study. Only two endemic frog species persist on the mainland. One of these, Leiopelma archeyi, is Critically Endangered (IUCN 2017) and ranked as the world's most evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered amphibian (EDGE, 2018). Ship rat stomach contents were collected by kill-trapping and subjected to three methods of diet analysis (one morphological and two DNA-based). A new primer pair was developed targeting all anuran species that exhibits good coverage, high taxonomic resolution, and reasonable specificity. Incorporating a temporal parameter allowed us to calculate the minimum number of ingestion events per rat per night, providing a more intuitive metric than the more commonly reported FO. We are not aware of other DNA-based diet studies that have incorporated a temporal parameter into FO data. The usefulness of such a metric will depend on the study system, in particular the feeding ecology of the predator. Ship rats are consuming both species of native frogs present on mainland New Zealand, and this study provides the first detections of remains of these species in mammalian stomach contents.
Start page
5032
End page
5048
Volume
9
Issue
9
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ecología Ciencias naturales
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85065500547
Source
Ecology and Evolution
ISSN of the container
20457758
Sponsor(s)
The research was carried out with the approval of the University of Otago Animal Ethics Committee (AEC No. 50/09 and 25/09), the Department of Conservation (National Permit Number WK‐26766‐ RES and WK‐32428‐FAU), the Auckland Regional Council (Reference WS454), and Māori Consultation (Reference 5642_16485). Funding for this research was provided by the University of Otago Department of Zoology, the Australian Academy of Science, the Auckland Zoo Conservation Fund Small Grants Programme, the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, the Society for Research on Amphibians and Reptiles in New Zealand, Ecogecko Consultants, the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand, the M.J. & B.J. Marples Ecology Fund and the Polish Charitable & Educational Trust and was partly supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 668981. Frog tis‐ sue samples were provided by the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, Illinois, USA), the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History (Washington, DC, USA), the Technical University of Braunschweig (Braunschweig, Germany), the Australian Museum (Sydney, Australia), the University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand), and CIBIO‐InBIO (Porto, Portugal). We particularly thank Miguel Vences and Guillermo Velo‐AntD?n for the loan of samples for primer testing. We would like to thank the University of Otago Frog Team for their advice and input. We thank Dr. Tania King, Nicky McHugh, and Karen Judge for providing assistance with laboratory resources. We are also indebted to the many volunteers that helped with field work: Karol Finnerty, James Barnaville, Lucy Ferris, Rhodri Hardy, Michaela Blomquist, Beth Haines, Rob Wood, Justyna Miklas, Alan Mackern, Edgardo Moreno, Christy Reynolds, Roc Taull, Kate Morozova, Stephanie Hicks, Chris Smal, Allison Ernst, Tim Darviole, Pia, Devin, Debra, and Jess. For helping to organize access, helping in the field, and/or providing advice on site lo‐ cations, we thank Lisa Daglish, Kate McKenzie, Oliver Overdyck, Sarah Cosio, Alison Davis, Duncan Emerson, and Dave Smith.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus