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Nucleic Acids Res 25:3389–3402īalestrieri A, Remonti L, Ruiz-González A, Vergara M, Capelli E, Gómez-Moliner B, Prigioni C (2011) Food habits of genetically identified pine marten ( Martes martes) expanding in agricultural lowlands (NW Italy). This strategy could be implemented as a monitoring programme for indigenous and introduced mammal species.Īltschul SF, Madden TL, Schaffer AA, Zhang J, Zhang Z, Miller W, Lipman DJ (1997) Gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST: a new generation of protein database search programs. This study demonstrates that all target species were genetically detected from pine marten scats.

We also included additional scats to investigate if less common prey items, the red squirrel and grey squirrel, could also be detected.

In this study, we applied an indirect method by genetically testing the presence of small mammals in pine marten scats collected during the National Pine Marten Survey (2005–2007) to map their distribution. Direct monitoring of these species and their interactions requires trapping, a labour-intensive and costly approach. This is important in Ireland, where it has been shown that the combined presence of the introduced bank vole and greater white-toothed shrew impact the distribution of the indigenous small mammals, the wood mouse and pygmy shrew.

DNA identification of mammal species occurring in the diet of a predator is potentially a useful approach to remotely monitor the distribution of multiple species.

All About Trust by D.P. Denman