Abstract

CAZON, Ada V.; JUAREZ, Victor D.; MONJEAU, J. A.  and  LILIENFELD, M.. Identification of puma and jaguar feces through the analysis of fecal bile acids: a technique to monitoring wildlife carnivores. Mastozool. neotrop. [online]. 2009, vol.16, n.2, pp.449-453. ISSN 0327-9383.

In faunal surveys, it is frequent to use feces as a source of information of many studies. This methodology is very useful for large carnivores that are difficult to see. However, the specific identification is not always correct, especially when two species have the same distribution. This is the case of puma and jaguar at intermediate altitudes in Amboró National Park in Bolivia, our case study. To solve this problem we used a simple laboratory technique, thin layer chromatography that allows the identification of species by chromatographic determination of intensity, colour and presence/absence pattern of fecal bile acids. We compared the bile acid pattern of samples collected in Amboró National Park with that one of known samples from zoos and fauna stations. The results show that the cougar bile acid pattern was: lithocholic, dehydrocholic, deoxycholic, quenodeoxycholic, cholic glycocholic and four non identified bile acids. The jaguar bile acid pattern was: lithocholic, dehydrocholic, deoxycholic, cholic, glycocholic and three non identified bile acids. We found cholesterol in all samples. The use of this technique is very important because it is cheap and simple for fauna monitoring.

Keywords : Bile acids; Feces; Felids; Thin layer chromatography.

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