USE OF NON-INVASIVE GENETIC SAMPLING IN POPULATION ESTIMATES OF THE GIANT KANGAROO RAT (DIPODOMYS INGENS), AN ENDANGERED SMALL MAMMAL

Madison L Treiber ; California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo ; mtreiber@live.com; Mark Statham, Tim Bean

Population estimation is fundamental to wildlife management. The current gold standard for many applications is live mark-recapture, but this approach can be difficult, time intensive, and pose welfare risks. Further, heterogeneity in response to traps may bias population estimates, and presents difficulty in obtaining information on trap-avoidant individuals. Non-invasive genetic techniques can resolve many limitations of live mark-recapture methods while providing reliable population estimates. While this approach has proven valuable in large, wide-ranging species, small mammal applications have been less common. Here, we compare live-trapping and non-invasive fecal genetic sampling in population studies of the giant kangaroo rat (Dipodomys ingens), a federally and California listed endangered species endemic to the San Joaquin Desert. We found that a single fecal pellet was sufficient to genotype individuals, and that DNA was resilient in fecal pellets for at least 9 days after deposition. In our first year of sampling, both methods yielded similar population estimates, but live-trapped individuals were almost all different from those identified non-invasively one week later. We conclude that non-invasive genetic sampling may prove to be an effective alternative to live mark-recapture estimation for small mammals, but collection strategies will need to be studied in a broader set of taxa.

Poster Session  InPerson Presentation