10.5061/DRYAD.6Q573N621
Brun, Loic
University of Lausanne
Schneider, Judith
0000-0003-2663-6130
University of Lausanne
Mas-CarriĆ³, Eduard
University of Lausanne
Dongre, Pooja
University of Lausanne
Taberlet, Pierre
Grenoble Alpes University
van de Waal, Erica
University of Lausanne
Fumagalli, Luca
University of Lausanne
Focal vs. faecal: Seasonal variation in the diet of wild vervet monkeys
from observational and DNA metabarcoding data
Dryad
dataset
2022
DNA metabarcoding
Vervet Monkey
Chlorocebus pygerythrus
FOS: Biological sciences
European Research Council
https://ror.org/0472cxd90
949379
Swiss National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/00yjd3n13
310030_192512
ETH Zurich
https://ror.org/05a28rw58
PP00P3_170624
Swiss National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/00yjd3n13
PP00P3_170624
University of Lausanne
https://ror.org/019whta54
Faculty of Biology and Medicine, Fellowship in Life Sciences
University of Lausanne
2022-09-28T00:00:00Z
2022-09-28T00:00:00Z
en
5277538659 bytes
3
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
1. Assessing the diet of wild animals reveals valuable information about
their ecology and trophic relationships that may help elucidate dynamic
interactions in ecosystems and forecast responses to environmental
changes. 2. Advances in molecular biology provide valuable research tools
in this field. However, comparative empirical research is still required
to highlight strengths and potential biases of different approaches.
Therefore, this study compares environmental DNA and observational methods
for the same study population and sampling duration. 3. We employed DNA
metabarcoding assays targeting plant and arthropod diet items in 823
faecal samples collected over 12 months in a wild population of an
omnivorous primate, the vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus). DNA
metabarcoding data were subsequently compared to direct observations. 4.
We observed the same seasonal patterns of plant consumption with both
methods, however, DNA metabarcoding showed considerably greater taxonomic
coverage and resolution compared to observations, mostly due to the
construction of a local plant DNA database. We found a strong effect of
season on variation in plant consumption largely shaped by the dry and wet
seasons. The seasonal effect on arthropod consumption was weaker but
feeding on arthropods was more frequent in spring and summer, showing
overall that vervets adapt their diet according to available resources.
The DNA metabarcoding assay outperformed also direct observations of
arthropod consumption in both taxonomic coverage and resolution. 5.
Combining traditional techniques and DNA metabarcoding data can therefore
not only provide enhanced assessments of complex diets or reveal trophic
interactions to the benefit of wildlife conservationists and managers but
also opens new perspectives for behavioural ecologists studying whether
diet variation in social species is induced by environmental differences
or might reflect selective foraging behaviours.