Assessment of bias in morphological identification of carnivore scats confirmed with molecular scatology in north-eastern Himalayan region of Pakistan
Scats are often used to study ecological parameters of carnivore species. However, field identification of carnivore scats, based on their morphological characteristics, becomes difficult if many carnivore species are distributed in the same area. We assessed error rates in morphological identificat...
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crpeerj:10.7717/peerj.5262 2024-09-15T18:01:23+00:00 Assessment of bias in morphological identification of carnivore scats confirmed with molecular scatology in north-eastern Himalayan region of Pakistan Akrim, Faraz Mahmood, Tariq Max, Tamara Nadeem, Muhammad Sajid Qasim, Siddiqa Andleeb, Shaista Higher Education Commission Pakistan 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5262 https://peerj.com/articles/5262.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/5262.xml https://peerj.com/articles/5262.html en eng PeerJ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PeerJ volume 6, page e5262 ISSN 2167-8359 journal-article 2018 crpeerj https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5262 2024-08-06T04:11:13Z Scats are often used to study ecological parameters of carnivore species. However, field identification of carnivore scats, based on their morphological characteristics, becomes difficult if many carnivore species are distributed in the same area. We assessed error rates in morphological identification of five sympatric carnivores’ scats in north-eastern Himalayan region of Pakistan during 2013–2017. A sample of 149 scats were subjected to molecular identification using fecal DNA. We used a confusion matrix to assess different types of errors associated with carnivore scat identification. We were able to amplify DNA from 96.6% ( n = 144) of scats. Based on field identification of carnivore scats, we had predicted that out of 144 scats: 11 (7.6%) scats were from common leopard, 38 (26.4%) from red fox, 29 (20.1%) from Asiatic jackal, 37 (25.7%) from yellow throated martin, 14 (9.7%) from Asian palm civet and 15 (10.4%) from small Indian civet. However, molecular identification revealed and confirmed nine were scats (6.24%) from common leopard, 40 (27.8 %) from red fox, 21 (14.6%) from Asiatic jackal, 45 (31.25%) from Asian palm civet, 12 (8.3%) scats from small Indian civet, while 11 scats (7.6%) were found from Canis lupus Spp., three (2%) from dog, one (0.7 %) scat sample from porcupine, and two (1.4%) from rhesus monkey. Misidentification rate was highest for Asian palm civet (25.7%), followed by red fox (11.1%) and Asiatic jackal (9.7%) but least for common leopard scats (4.2%). The results specific to our study area concur with previous studies that have recommended that carnivore monitoring programs utilize molecular identification of predator scats. Using only morphological identification of scats can be misleading and may result in wrong management decisions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus PeerJ Publishing PeerJ 6 e5262 |
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English |
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Scats are often used to study ecological parameters of carnivore species. However, field identification of carnivore scats, based on their morphological characteristics, becomes difficult if many carnivore species are distributed in the same area. We assessed error rates in morphological identification of five sympatric carnivores’ scats in north-eastern Himalayan region of Pakistan during 2013–2017. A sample of 149 scats were subjected to molecular identification using fecal DNA. We used a confusion matrix to assess different types of errors associated with carnivore scat identification. We were able to amplify DNA from 96.6% ( n = 144) of scats. Based on field identification of carnivore scats, we had predicted that out of 144 scats: 11 (7.6%) scats were from common leopard, 38 (26.4%) from red fox, 29 (20.1%) from Asiatic jackal, 37 (25.7%) from yellow throated martin, 14 (9.7%) from Asian palm civet and 15 (10.4%) from small Indian civet. However, molecular identification revealed and confirmed nine were scats (6.24%) from common leopard, 40 (27.8 %) from red fox, 21 (14.6%) from Asiatic jackal, 45 (31.25%) from Asian palm civet, 12 (8.3%) scats from small Indian civet, while 11 scats (7.6%) were found from Canis lupus Spp., three (2%) from dog, one (0.7 %) scat sample from porcupine, and two (1.4%) from rhesus monkey. Misidentification rate was highest for Asian palm civet (25.7%), followed by red fox (11.1%) and Asiatic jackal (9.7%) but least for common leopard scats (4.2%). The results specific to our study area concur with previous studies that have recommended that carnivore monitoring programs utilize molecular identification of predator scats. Using only morphological identification of scats can be misleading and may result in wrong management decisions. |
author2 |
Higher Education Commission Pakistan |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Akrim, Faraz Mahmood, Tariq Max, Tamara Nadeem, Muhammad Sajid Qasim, Siddiqa Andleeb, Shaista |
spellingShingle |
Akrim, Faraz Mahmood, Tariq Max, Tamara Nadeem, Muhammad Sajid Qasim, Siddiqa Andleeb, Shaista Assessment of bias in morphological identification of carnivore scats confirmed with molecular scatology in north-eastern Himalayan region of Pakistan |
author_facet |
Akrim, Faraz Mahmood, Tariq Max, Tamara Nadeem, Muhammad Sajid Qasim, Siddiqa Andleeb, Shaista |
author_sort |
Akrim, Faraz |
title |
Assessment of bias in morphological identification of carnivore scats confirmed with molecular scatology in north-eastern Himalayan region of Pakistan |
title_short |
Assessment of bias in morphological identification of carnivore scats confirmed with molecular scatology in north-eastern Himalayan region of Pakistan |
title_full |
Assessment of bias in morphological identification of carnivore scats confirmed with molecular scatology in north-eastern Himalayan region of Pakistan |
title_fullStr |
Assessment of bias in morphological identification of carnivore scats confirmed with molecular scatology in north-eastern Himalayan region of Pakistan |
title_full_unstemmed |
Assessment of bias in morphological identification of carnivore scats confirmed with molecular scatology in north-eastern Himalayan region of Pakistan |
title_sort |
assessment of bias in morphological identification of carnivore scats confirmed with molecular scatology in north-eastern himalayan region of pakistan |
publisher |
PeerJ |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5262 https://peerj.com/articles/5262.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/5262.xml https://peerj.com/articles/5262.html |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_source |
PeerJ volume 6, page e5262 ISSN 2167-8359 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5262 |
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PeerJ |
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6 |
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e5262 |
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1810438538654646272 |