Myotis lucifugus and Myotis yumanensis mixed maternity roost monitoring methods

This project seeks to develop a non-invasive method, which does not require direct wildlife capture and handling, for monitoring the endangered little brown myotis and a co-occurring species, Yuma myotis, at shared summer maternity roost sites in western North America. A method is urgently needed so that potential species-specific impacts to these two bats from the deadly white-nose syndrome can be assessed and mitigated as the disease inevitably spreads within BC in the near future. Our proposed method involves acoustic monitoring of bat echolocation calls, and eDNA air sampling, which captures DNA shed by bats into the air and uses genetic testing to assign a species identification to the DNA. If validated, a method such as this could be efficient, accurate, and accessible. Importantly, it would not require high levels of involvement by species experts, so it could be readily scaled up to harness non-expert conservation and citizen science groups. We will draw on and advance a WCS Canada Bat Program database, that will synthesize WCS Canada’s bat-related data, and make accessing and summarizing this data to address pressing conservation problems, like this one, easier and more manageable.

Faculty Supervisor:

Lauchlan Fraser

Student:

Partner:

Wildlife Conservation Society Canada

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Other services (except public administration); Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Thompson Rivers University

Program: