Ideally we would like to mark a number of species of microbats and have the mark last for a few years. Ideally whatever we use to mark individuals should be individually recognizable. These bats are quite small but perhaps someone has experience with bats or small birds? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated,
Jan
Hi Jan,
A system I work with and that is pretty convenient, but a little pricy: the PharmaSeq p-chips. It's a very small RFID chip (0.6x0.6 mm) that only weighs 87µg that can be implanted under the skin or glued onto hard surfaces (I glue them on parasitoid wasps). It was originally designed for use with lab animals such as rats, the chips can be read through the skin and can remain in the animal for its whole life. You get the id with a reader wand that's connected to a laptop or is standalone. If you want to know more just get in contact.
cheers
Wolfgang
Hey hallo,
the p-chip from PharmaSeq is very small (0,5 mm) and might be an option for you
I think the smallest PIT tags you can get are the Trovan nano tags (around 7mm long). With bats you'd have to be very careful with placement and consider using tags that are textured so that they don't move around much under the skin as you'd need to avoid the tag getting in the way of the wings. The nice thing about PIT tags would be that you'd be able to scan roosts to ID your bats without disurbing them (e.g.during hibernation or in the day) or even install a reader hoop at the roost entrance to record bats as they fly in and out. Colleagues of mine did something similar with bird nest boxesand feeding stations - with PIT tags glued to the bird ring rather than injected. You can of course just ring the bats with unique ring numbers (if the purpose is just to ID them when in hand and there is no need for more remote scanning). I've attached a link to a UK manual which covers different marking options.
Hi Everyone,
Thanks so much for the suggestions and information; it seems like the p-chip from PharmaSeq might be the best option out there (or certainly the smallest) and I'll let you know how it turns out if and when we give it a go. Thanks again,
Jan
Hi Jan
get into contact with Stephen Griffiths [email protected]
Steve has been working on microbats since many years using different marking techniques. He will be a great source of knowledge.
Best! Ursula
Or you simply mark the bats with a tattooed number. This is the rather cheap solution and you do not have trouble with the weight or the implantation.
Hi Philip,
I was wondering about this; do you have experience with this and have any suggestions on ink and/or needles to use? Thanks everyone for the helpful answers!
Jan
No, I have not worked with bats yet. But at the University of Bonn there is (or was) a working group. There is also an association for the protection of bat, and I think they do some research as well.
http://www.der-baff.de/
I think, they can help you.
I ring and PIT tag small microbats
Be very careful that you can return data from any PIT tag system you use. Specifically that you'll get a read from every attempt to control the bat - whatever ideal behaviour you might imagine bats to have as they emerge from their roosts you can bet that every species will find their own unique way to avoid being detected or their ID not being completely read unless you use a very robust reading system. As others have said - with the very small PIT tag systems you do need to ensure that tags will not migrate in the animal and cause pathology (as well as probably avoiding detection because the tag is too far from the reader)
We have a fly through reader - big thing but nominally guarentees a 98% read of a bat at 8 m/s - but it requires the use of larger non-ISO tags - again all part of the matrix of issues which need to be considered.
Whatever else you try - you can't beat apprirtaely sized rings as well, both to validate the quality of mark retention for your novel method, but also as a fall back if all else fails
j
Hi Marie,
Thanks for the information; I am starting to look into readers at the entrance of the colonies as it seems like an awesome automated way to get all sorts of data about the bats. I found this DYI option (paper attached) and a commercial option from Biomark and all sorts of price ranges; what did your group use for the microbats and do you have a price estimate for the set up? Do you think it would be possible to set up a reader at the enterance of a few roosts and check back ~1/month or would this require nightly downloading of data and checking batteries etc.?
Thanks again,
Jan
Article A New Low-Cost Instream Antenna System for Tracking Passive ...
Dear Marie Moinet
,I am currently looking for a solution for a study with similar needs than in the one you described above with colonies entrances equipped with PIT tags reader. I am therefore also very interested to know more about the system you used in this study.
Best regards,
Gauvain Saucy
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