title: Differentiating between Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) and northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) scats through analysis of faecal DNA.
abstract: We describe a method to determine the species of pinniped from faeces collected from sympatric Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) and northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) rookeries using newly developed species-specific primers that amplify a 667-669-base pair segment from the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome B (cytB) gene region. The primers yielded the correct species in 100% of tissue samples from 10 known animals and 100% of faecal samples from 13 known animals. Species could be identified unequivocally for 87.7% of faecal samples from 122 unknown individuals. The ability to differentiate between scats of sympatrically breeding Steller sea lions and northern fur seals will contribute to the range-wide knowledge of the foraging strategies of both species as well as allow researchers to examine the niche partitioning and potential resource competition between the two predators.
authors.affiliation: Alaska SeaLife Center, 301 Railway Ave, PO Box 1329, Seward, AK 99664, USA. jason.waite@alaska.edu
authors.forename: Jason N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Waite
authors.forename: Lisette P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Waits
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bozza
authors.forename: Russel D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Andrews
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D005243:Feces / Q000737:chemistry*; D046069:Fur Seals / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D046070:Sea Lions / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers