Poo Tastic!

Over the past few weeks I’ve been collecting as much bat poo as possible…

“Why?” you may ask… well – Analysing the DNA of a poo from a bat, is one of the best, least invasive ways to get a positive identification of a bat’s species.

“Why is this important?” you may ask… well – When trying to identify bats that look very similar and echolocate at almost the same frequencies, it is almost impossible to tell them apart.

“So what are you getting at?” you may ask… well – Without a knowledge of the requirements of an individual species, it is very hard to try and conserve that species or make any informed decisions about things that may affect that species such as habitat management.

Weighing a bat in a bag while waiting for it to poo!
(Photo: Steven Roe)

And let me clarify that first sentence; I won’t just be collecting any old poo. I’m specifically looking to collect poo from as many Brandt’s, Whiskered and Alcthaoe bats as possible as these three species are morphologically very similar (I just wanted to get your attention earlier).

So after all of that science talk, now let’s get to the bit you are most interested in:

How do you collect poo from a bat?

First of all you have to catch a bat. There are various methods, I will be using a type of trap called a harp trap (check back soon, I’ll be posting a blog about trapping in the near future). Next you put the bat into a cloth bag and hang it up on a branch for around 10 minutes. Nine times out of ten within this time period the bat will have done a poo. Once you have taken the bat out of the bag, carefully move the poo from the bag into a little tube where the poo will be stored until it is time for DNA analysis. I’ll be storing my bat poo filled tubes in a freezer. At university we have a designated bat poo freezer, but when I am elsewhere in the country they’ll have to be stored in between the peas and ice cream!

Multiple boxes of tubes containing bat poo at
the University of Bristol collected by others researchers
for other studies
(Photo: Philip Brown)

Bat poo looks similar to mouse poo but is very different in texture. Mice eat all sorts of things, a lot of which are moist or contain water. This means that their poo would squidge if you squeezed it between your fingers. UK bats only eat insects. Insect have dry bodies which are made out of something called chitin. This results in bat poo being dry, which if you were to squidge between your fingers, would crumble.

So, to further expand on that inaccurate first sentence, I will be collecting crumbly bat poo from any Brandt’s, Whiskered and Alcthoe bats that I catch so I can analyse the DNA to work out exactly which species I have caught as these three species look almost identical and it is hard to tell them apart.

I am studying for a self-funded MSc at the University of Bristol with equipment and support from the Bat Conservation Trust http://www.bats.org.uk/ and training and guidance from Daniel Whitby of AEWC Ltd. If you would like to contact me about my research please email: philip.brown@bristol.ac.uk