新的DNA方法有助于追踪濒临灭绝的墨西哥长鼻子蝙蝠，迁移到亚利桑那州

研究人员说，他们现在有一种方法可以通过分析唾液来告诉濒临灭绝的物种，除其他蝙蝠外，夜间哺乳动物从植物和住宅蜂鸟喂食器中s饮时会留下。

Scientists have long suspected that Mexican long-nosed bats migrate through southeastern Arizona, but without capturing and measuring the night-flying creatures, proof has been elusive.

科学家长期以来一直怀疑墨西哥长鼻子的蝙蝠迁移到亚利桑那州东南部，但没有捕获和测量夜间飞行生物，证明是难以捉摸的。

Now, researchers say they have a way to tell the endangered species apart from other bats by analyzing saliva the nocturnal mammals leave behind when sipping nectar from plants and residential hummingbird feeders.

现在，研究人员说，他们有一种方法可以通过分析唾液来告诉濒临灭绝的物种，除其他蝙蝠外，夜间哺乳动物从植物和住宅蜂鸟喂食器中s饮时会留下。

Bat Conservation International, a nonprofit group working to end the extinction of bat species worldwide, teamed up with residents from southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and west Texas for the saliva swabbing campaign.

BAT Conservation International是一个非营利组织，致力于结束全球蝙蝠物种的灭绝，与来自亚利桑那州东南部，新墨西哥州西南部和西德克萨斯州的居民合作，进行了唾液吞噬运动。

The samples of saliva left along potential migration routes were sent to a lab at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, where researchers looked for environmental DNA — or eDNA — to confirm that the bats cycle through Arizona and consider the region their part-time home.

沿潜在迁移路线剩下的唾液样本被送往弗拉格斯塔夫北亚利桑那大学的一个实验室，研究人员在那里寻找环境DNA或Edna，以确认蝙蝠穿过亚利桑那州并考虑该地区的兼职房屋。

The Mexican long-nosed bat has been listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act since 1988, and is the only one in Arizona with that federal protection. It is an important species for pollinating cactus, agave and other desert plants.

自1988年以来，根据《濒危物种法》，墨西哥长鼻子的蝙蝠被列为濒危物种，是亚利桑那州唯一具有联邦保护的人。它是授粉仙人掌，龙舌兰和其他沙漠植物的重要物种。

Officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Arizona Game and Fish Department announced the discovery in late January. While expanding Arizona's list of bat species to 29 is exciting, wildlife managers say the use of this novel, noninvasive method to nail it down also deserves to be celebrated.

美国鱼类和野生动物服务局以及亚利桑那州游戏和鱼类部的官员在1月下旬宣布了这一发现。野生动物管理者说，尽管将亚利桑那州的蝙蝠物种清单扩大到29，但野生动植物经理说，使用这种小说无创的方法将其钉住也值得庆祝。

“If we were trying to identify the species in the absence of eDNA, biologists could spend hours and hours trying to catch one of these bats, and even then, you’re not guaranteed to be successful,” said Angie McIntire, a bat specialist for the Arizona's Game and Fish Department. “By sampling the environment, eDNA gives us an additional tool for our toolkit."

蝙蝠专家安吉·麦金太尔（Angie McIntire）说：“如果我们试图在没有埃德娜（Edna）的情况下识别物种，那么生物学家可能会花费数小时尝试捕捉其中一只蝙蝠，即使那样，您也不能保证成功。”对于亚利桑那州的游戏和鱼类部门。 “通过对环境进行采样，Edna为我们提供了工具包的附加工具。”

Every spring, Mexican long-nosed bats traverse a lengthy migratory path north from Mexico into the southwestern U.S., following the sweet nectar of their favorite blooming plants like breadcrumbs. They return along the same route in the fall.

每年春天，墨西哥长鼻子的蝙蝠沿着墨西哥向北的漫长迁徙路径穿越了西南部，沿着他们最喜欢的盛开植物（如面包屑）的甜蜜花蜜。他们在秋天沿着同一条路线返回。

The bat conservation group recruited ordinary citizens for the mission, giving them kits to swab samples from bird feeders throughout the summer and fall.

蝙蝠保护小组招募了普通公民来执行任务，并在整个夏季和秋季给了他们擦拭鸟类喂食器样品的套件。

Inside the university lab, microbiology major Anna Riley extracted the DNA from hundreds of samples and ran them through machines that ultimately could detect the presence of bats. Part of the work involved a steady hand, with Riley using a syringe of sorts to transfer diluted DNA into tiny vials before popping them into a centrifuge.

在大学实验室内，微生物学专业安娜·赖利（Anna Riley）从数百个样品中提取了DNA，并通过机器将它们跑到，最终可以检测到蝙蝠的存在。一部分工作涉及一只稳定的手，莱利使用一种注射器将稀释的DNA转移到小瓶中，然后将其弹出到离心机中。

Sample after sample, vial after vial, the meticulous work took months.

样本后的样品，小瓶后的小瓶，细致的工作花了几个月。

“There’s a big database that has DNA sequences of not every animal but most species, and so we could compare our DNA sequences we got from these samples to what’s in the database," Riley said. "A little bit like a Google search — you’ve got your question, you’re asking Google, you plug it into the database, and it turns up you’ve got a bat, and you have this kind of bat.”

赖利说：“有一个大数据库具有并非每种动物而是大多数物种的DNA序列，因此我们可以将我们从这些样品中获得的DNA序列与数据库中的内容进行比较。” “有问题，您正在问Google，将其插入数据库中，结果您有一只蝙蝠，并且有这样的蝙蝠。”

Kristen Lear, of the conservation group, said the collection of eDNA has been used successfully for determining the presence of other kinds of wildlife in various environments, so the group proposed trying it with bats.

保护小组的克里斯汀·李尔（Kristen Lear）表示，埃德纳（Edna）的收集已成功地用于确定各种野生动植物在各种环境中的存在，因此该小组提出与蝙蝠进行尝试。

“They do apparently leave behind a lot of spit on these plants and hummingbird feeders,” Lear said.

李尔说：“他们显然在这些植物和蜂鸟喂食器上留下了很多吐口水。”

ONeil reported from Las Vegas. Gabriel Sandoval, a corps member for the Associated Press/ Report for America Statehouse News Initiative, in Phoenix contributed to this report.

从拉斯维加斯报道了Oneil。凤凰城的美国州立新闻新闻倡议的兵团/报告的军团成员加布里埃尔·桑多瓦尔（Gabriel Sandoval）为这份报告做出了贡献。