Improve Your Understanding of Animals

JonahAnimal delivers insight into animal diet with metabarcoding

Our JonahAnimal services answer questions about wildlife, livestock, and pests.

By sequencing animal fecal material, we quantify diet, parasites, and gut microbes.

We also sequence honey and pollen to quantify plant use by pollinators

JonahAnimal gives you the capacity to measure diets for

  • Herbivores such as bison, elk, cattle, and rodents
  • Omnivores such as pigs and bears
  • Predators such as fox, hawks, and bats

Species Studied So Far

DNA metabarcoding is a monumental leap forward in our ability to understand what animals are eating. The first time I received data back from our bison, I remember thinking, ‘This changes everything.’
Joe Craine, PhD

Co-Founder, Jonah Ventures

Our Next Generation Sequencing Assays

We pride ourselves in our transparancy. Take a look at the assays we offer to detect groups of species using Next Generation Sequencing. 

Vertebrates (Vert12S)

 The vertebrates assay is used to answer the question of what carnivores are eating. This assay covers mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Because carnivores can be so secretive, using metabarcoding analysis on their feces is an excellent way to collect important data without disturbing the animal. 

Plants

To determine what herbivores are eating, we analyze samples using our plant assay (trnL). It is effective at detecting grasses, forbs, and trees, so we can detail the nuances of your target species’ diet. It’s particularly fascinating to see the changes in herbivore’s diet preferences across the landscape and across seasons. This assay is also used to analyze the pollen in honey to see which plants bees are visiting.

Invertebrates

Is your target species an insectivore?  We routinely decipher the insect diets of birds, bats, amphibians, and fish. Though invertebrate libraries aren’t perfect, we can usually get to Family level, if not to genus, or even species. 

Bacteria

Bacteria can tell you a lot about what’s going on inside or on the surface of an animal, whether it’s disease-related or gut microbiome. Among animals of the same species, gut microbiomes can be very diverse.

Our Next Generation Sequencing Process

Example Data

Shown here are data on the proportions of different species in bison diet taken over three years from the same herd in South Dakota using our metabarcoding techniques. Top three diet items shown. Across the three years, bison routinely consumed high proportions of cool-season grasses in the spring and fall, while maximizing intake of protein from legumes in the summer.

Whether it is for seeing a time course of diet or comparing across populations or species, we can reconstruct the diets of herbivores, omnivores, or predators using our JonahAnimal services.

Our Standard Deliverables

NGS Report Explained

Pricing

*$5 handling fee for honey due to extra processing steps

Orders of <15 samples require an additional fee of $150 for bioinformatics setup per taxonomic group

Discounts available for large orders. Please contact to discuss.

If providing extracted DNA, samples are discounted $25/sample.

Request your free quote today!

Types of measurements

Jonah Ventures
5485 Conestoga Ct #210, 
Boulder, CO 80301
(720) 515-6624
email: info@jonahventures.com