Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Indiana Bat fecal DNA study, Indianapolis, IN Summer 2008

Metadata Updated: November 12, 2025

The endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) has declined dramatically and continuing threats have made it necessary to understand population dynamics and life history throughout the year. Specifically, demographic information (e.g., population size, reproductive success, survival) from the summer range where females raise their young in maternity colonies is difficult to estimate precisely using traditional techniques (such as emergence counts). Further, the familial makeup of maternity colonies is unknown. Genetic mark-recapture methods are increasingly being used to estimate demographic parameters in species where traditional techniques are problematic and can also provide insight into relatedness among individuals. Therefore, our objectives were to: 1) use genetic mark-recapture to provide estimates of survival, detection probability and population size of Indiana bats at a maternity roost in Indianapolis, IN, 2) compare population size estimates using genetic mark-recapture with emergence counts collected at the same roost tree, and 3) document levels of relatedness among individuals. In the summer of 2008, we collected fecal pellets and conducted emergence counts at a prominent roost tree during three time periods each lasting seven or eight days. We genotyped fecal DNA using five highly polymorphic microsatellite loci to identify individuals and used a robust design mark-recapture approach to estimate detection and survival probabilities as well as population size at the roost. Emergence count estimates ranged from 100 - 215, whereas genetic mark-recapture estimates were higher ranging from 122 – 266 and more precise (with smaller confidence intervals). Apparent survival was 0.994 (SE=0.04) between sampling periods suggesting that few bats died or permanently emigrated during the course of the study. Relatedness estimates, r, between all pairs of individuals averaged 0.055 ranging from 0 – 0.779 indicating that most individuals were not closely related. We demonstrate here the promise of using fecal DNA to estimate demographic information for Indiana bats and potentially other bat species.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 12, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 12, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-597a0f9fe4b0ec1a488bb18d
Data Last Modified 2020-08-20T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 253dd99c-aed4-4751-a22f-97bce0386fa9
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -180, 90, 180, -90
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 1b26317732e4407dfb1f85a11e5da14ee4e371d1f9bca16752a6bbc92ab06477
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -180, 90, -180, -90, 180, -90, 180, 90, -180, 90}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.