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Low accuracy of identifying Neotropical deer species by scat morphology |
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| Authors: | Eugênia Barbosa Varella Costa Pedro Henrique de Faria Peres Francisco Grotta-Neto Alexandre Vogliotti Ubiratan Piovezan |
| Affiliation: | 1. Núcleo de Pesquisa e Conserva??o de Cervídeos (NUPECCE), Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Jaboticabal, Brazil;2. Laboratório de Biodiversidade, Conserva??o e Ecologia de Animais Silvestres (LABCEAS), Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Brazil;3. Universidade Federal da Integra??o Latino-Americana (UNILA), Parque Tecnológico Itaipu, Foz do Igua?u, Brazil;4. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA), Corumbá, Brazil |
| Abstract: | Morphometric feces data are used to identify ungulates, but their effectiveness is questioned by numerous authors. Herein, we evaluated the efficiency of this tool in discriminating scat samples from Neotropical deer with sympatric distributions. We performed discriminant analysis of previously identified scat samples (n = 204). The accuracy of discriminant analysis (56–92%) was lower than the confidence limit established in this study in all sympatric combinations expected in these biomes. These results demonstrate serious limitations regarding the use of scat morphometry for species identification of Neotropical deer and reinforce the need to use non-invasive genetic techniques. |
| Keywords: | Fecal samples Mazama scat morphology fecal DNA Cervidae |