Subspecific identification of the Great Lakes' first Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) using DNA

Authors

  • Jeffrey H. Skevington Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, K.W. Neatby Building, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C6
  • James Pawlicki Ecology and Environment, Inc., 368 Pleasant View Drive, Lancaster, New York 14086-1316
  • Scott Kelso Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, K.W. Neatby Building, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C6
  • Kevin C.R. Kerr Toronto Zoo, 361A Old Finch Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M1B 5K7
  • Marcie Jacklin Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario L2S 3A1

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v129i1.1667

Keywords:

Brown Booby, Sula leucogaster, Great Lakes, distribution, vagrant, mitochondrial DNA, mtDNA, new record, Ontario, DNA extraction, feces, fecal sample, DNA identification

Abstract

The first Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) recorded in the Great Lakes basin was discovered on Lake Erie near the source of the Niagara River on 7 October 2013 by J. P. Morphologic evidence suggested that this bird was an adult female of the nominate Atlantic subspecies. We obtained genomic DNA from feces left by the bird. Mitochondrial DNA from the control region (CR2) was sequenced and compared with extensive CR2 data for Brown Booby available in GenBank; this corroborated the morphologic hypothesis. This is the first time that a vagrant bird in Canada has been identified using DNA extracted from feces.

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Published

2015-06-01

Issue

Vol. 129 No. 1 (2015)

Section

Articles

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