I am conducting a research project where I wish to reconstruct the diet of wolves through different methods, one of them is to use macro-remains from stomac contents. Any advices on lab methods ?
I'd search for studies on other predators as well. I know an older study by colleagues used a multiple screen-size filter system to filter out different-sized food fragments. This could efficiently separate bone, tooth, and hair fragments from other materials. You could also search DNA-based methods as environmental DNA studies are similar to this and you could likely run a suite of species specific primers at once.
Michael- I have such a screen-filter system if you'd want it. The good part of separating large parts of identifiable species is that you reduce lab costs for eDNA. Somewhat similarly, specialists use dogs to sort scat samples by species and any scat with mixed responses by dogs are then analyzed with PCR. This is over 90% effective and saves $$ working on big cats in Asia.
Thanks all, I am in fact already combining DNA metabarcoding, stables isotopes and macro-remains identification to reconstruct the diet of wolves over different scales. Kevin I'll be realy interested to know more about the screen-filter system you mentionned, do you actually buy this for that use or is this more an home-made system?
Thanks
Michaël
Buy it. I can look at company name tonight. It is just a series of 20-25 cm diameter round dishes with screen bottoms of different mesh size. Looks like something an archaeologist would use -maybe in something like Forestry Suppliers catalog? Curious would you look for plant matter as well? Presume minor component but may be relatively interesting in summer when fruits available... Co-worker has used isotopes on bison fecal pats to ID plants.
Here is link to the sifting system that can separate materials by size -designed to be used for soil samples: http://www.sears.com/hubbard-scientific-price-each-screen-sieves-kit-set-6-toys-games/p-SPM11965546915 Cheers!
Graham Edgar used the prey retained on different Wentworth grade sieves (those used for sediment analysis) in marine systems very effectively. Are you definitely using the stomach contents (via regurgitation?) or scats? If prey is broken down (which you would expect), then screens may reduce sorting time but not really add very much in terms of size composition, and may further fragment prey, making it difficult to ID. I would personally preserve the sample using ethanol (toughen it up a little if soft tissue - but check for conflicts with other methods), otherwise they prey may break apart too easily and it may be a little disgusting. You may need to get a library of hard parts from likely prey.
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