Expanding the Ecological Application of Invertebrate‐Derived DNA ( iDNA ) for Monitoring Terrestrial Mammals Using a Single‐Species Approach

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Successful conservation management planning is dependent on effective monitoring. The challenges of monitoring rare or elusive species are compounded by limited human and financial resources. This calls for the exploration of alternative monitoring techniques than the current standard methods. Invertebrate‐derived DNA (iDNA) is a technique previously used with metabarcoding to elucidate species richness within a habitat. In this paper, we describe the development and field testing of an iDNA quantitative PCR assay for the detection and monitoring of brown bear, Ursus arctos . In laboratory experiments, we demonstrated amplification of bear mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from blow flies ( Calliphora vomitoria ) up to 20 h after flies ingested bear feces. Bear mtDNA from flies was detectable when the proportion of feces‐fed flies was less than 5% of a homogenized fly sample which also contained flies that had not ingested bear feces. In field trials, we found that the method was also effective at detecting bear mtDNA in wild‐caught coprophagous flies, mostly from the families Calliphoridae, Sarcophagidae, and Muscidae. We posit that our iDNA assay can form the basis of a sensitive, noninvasive method for inferring brown bear distribution. These methods are a readily translatable tool for monitoring terrestrial mammals, which represent a valuable complement to other survey techniques.