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21 March 2017 Bat wing biometrics: using collagen-elastin bundles in bat wings as a unique individual identifier
Sybill K. Amelon, Sarah E. Hooper, Kathryn M. Womack
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Abstract

The ability to recognize individuals within an animal population is fundamental to conservation and management. Identification of individual bats has relied on artificial marking techniques that may negatively affect the survival and alter the behavior of individuals. Biometric systems use biological characteristics to identify individuals. The field of animal biometrics has expanded to include recognition of individuals based upon various morphologies and phenotypic variations including pelage patterns, tail flukes, and whisker arrangement. Biometric systems use 4 biologic measurement criteria: universality, distinctiveness, permanence, and collectability. Additionally, the system should not violate assumptions of capture–recapture methods that include no increased mortality or alterations of behavior. We evaluated whether individual bats could be uniquely identified based upon the collagen–elastin bundles that are visible with gross examination of their wings. We examined little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus), northern long-eared bats (M. septentrionalis), big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus), and tricolored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) to determine whether the “wing prints” from the bundle network would satisfy the biologic measurement criteria. We evaluated 1,212 photographs from 230 individual bats comparing week 0 photos with those taken at weeks 3 or 6 and were able to confirm identity of individuals over time. Two blinded evaluators were able to successfully match 170 individuals in hand to photographs taken at weeks 0, 3, and 6. This study suggests that bats can be successfully re-identified using photographs taken at previous times. We suggest further evaluation of this methodology for use in a standardized system that can be shared among bat conservationists.

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of American Society of Mammalogists 2017. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.
Sybill K. Amelon, Sarah E. Hooper, and Kathryn M. Womack "Bat wing biometrics: using collagen-elastin bundles in bat wings as a unique individual identifier," Journal of Mammalogy 98(3), 744-751, (21 March 2017). https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyx018
Received: 13 October 2016; Accepted: 28 February 2017; Published: 21 March 2017
KEYWORDS
animal identification
bats
biometrics
E. fuscus
M. lucifugus
M. septentrionalis
P. subflavus
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