APPLICATION ESSAYS Can molecular data validate morphometric identification of faecal pellets in Tanzanian forest antelope species? Andrew E. Bowkett • Trevor Jones • Richard L. Laizzer • Amy B. Plowman • Jamie R. Stevens Received: 9 May 2012 / Accepted: 29 April 2013 / Published online: 5 May 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract Forest-dwelling antelope species are often dif- ficult to detect during surveys due to their cryptic behav- iour and densely vegetated habitats. Dung counts have traditionally been used to infer forest antelope abundance but genetic identification has shown that visual identifica- tion of ungulate dung to species is often unreliable. This study attempted to use easily obtained morphometric data from faecal pellets to statistically assign antelope dung piles to species. We measured pellets from 238 dung piles collected from the Udzungwa Mountains, south-central Tanzania, a largely forested landscape with five forest- associated antelope species including the endangered Abbott’s duiker Cephalophus spadix. The species identity of sampled dung piles was determined by amplifying a c. 600 bp fragment of the mitochondrial control region and aligning DNA sequences with published references. We found no diagnostic differences in faecal pellet size between antelope species although there were significant differences in mean pellet length and width. We employed a single variable linear discriminant analysis to predict the species of dung piles based on pellet length. Despite sig- nificant differentiation between species we obtained an overall accuracy of 58.8 % that did not meet our specified probability threshold (P \ 0.05). Abbott’s duiker dung piles were correctly assigned in the majority of cases (74 %). Overall, morphometric assignment of dung piles to species was not accurate enough to validate dung counts as a survey method for forest antelope although our results do not preclude the development of alternative field identifi- cation methods using additional non-molecular characters. Keywords Bar-coding Á Mitochondrial D-loop Á Neotragus Á Tragelaphus Á Philantomba Introduction Encounter rates and density estimates of faecal deposits are often used to infer the abundance of ungulates for research or management (Campbell et al. 2004; Lunt et al. 2007; Plumptre and Harris 1995). However, genetic identification of ungulate faeces (referred to here as dung), by amplifying species-specific fragments of mitochondrial DNA, has revealed that dung piles are often mistakenly identified in the field (Faria et al. 2011; van Vliet et al. 2008; Yamashiro et al. 2010). This is a particular problem when species of conservation concern, for example the mountain bongo Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci in Kenya (Faria et al. 2011), occupy the same areas as other ungulate species with similar dung morphology. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12686-013-9935-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. A. E. Bowkett (&) Á J. R. Stevens Molecular Ecology and Evolution Group, Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Science, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QD, UK e-mail: andrew.bowkett@paigntonzoo.org.uk A. E. Bowkett Á A. B. Plowman Field Conservation and Research Department, Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust, Paignton Zoo, Totnes Road, Paignton TQ4 7EU, UK T. Jones Á R. L. Laizzer Udzungwa Elephant Project, P.O. Box 99, Mang’ula, Tanzania T. Jones Animal and Environmental Research Group, Department of Life Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK 123 Conservation Genet Resour (2013) 5:1095–1100 DOI 10.1007/s12686-013-9935-3