Publications

The loss of ranchland to critical habitat has been a major concern to ranchers and other large landowners in recent years. On the island of Maui, a novel approach is in the works which seems to have merit both for conservation of endangered species and for helping a landowner ethically manage an ecologically sensitive area.

Mus musculus and Rattus rattus are ubiquitous consumers in the high-elevation shrubland of Haleakala National Park. Food habits of these two rodent species were determined from stomach samples obtained by snaptrapping along transects located at four different elevations during November 1984 and February, May, and August 1985. Mus musculus fed primarily on fruits, grass seeds, and...

The growing frequency and impact of biological invasions worldwide threaten biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, resource availability, national economies, and human health (Ruesink et al. 1995, Simberloff 1996, Vitousek et al. 1997). Organisms are spreading into new regions at unprecedented rates. As a result, hundreds to thousands of nonindigenous species of invertebrates, vertebrates...

The annual, endemic, coastal herb Centaurium sebaeoides is the only native Hawaiian species in the gentian family. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed it as Endangered under the Endangered Species Act on 29 October 1991. Before surveys reported here, the total population of this species statewide was estimated at 80-110 individuals in eight populations. During counts made in April...

Feral cat Felis catus home range in a Hawaiian montane wet forest and their diet in three habitats - montane wet forest, subalpine dry forest, and lowland dry forest ? were determined to provide baseline ecological data and to assess potential impacts to native terrestrial fauna. Seven cats (three males and four females) were captured in 624 trap nights. Mean weight of adult cats was 2...

The endangered Maui Parrotbill (Pseudonestor xanthophrys) is an excavating, insectivorous Hawaiian honeycreeper endemic to the high elevation rain forests of east Maui, Hawaii. From March 1994 to June 1997, we studied various aspects of their breeding ecology. We color-banded 18 individuals, located and monitored 9 active nests, and took behavioral data during 440 hrs of nest observation...

Miconia calvescens (Melastomataceae), from the Neotropics, is a noxious forest weed in Hawaii. We evaluated an isolate of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides that causes leaf spots on Miconia spp. in Brazil for its potential in biological control. Hawaii has no native Melastomataceae genera but does have members of 12 introduced genera.

Variable circular-plot (VCP) counts are statistically more sound than point counts because they are adjusted for the probability of detecting birds at different distances and under different conditions. However, many ornithologists use point counts rather than VCP counts because they believe that assumptions of the VCP method are almost always violated, leading to poor results, and...

The following represents a new island record of Carposina nigronotata for Maui. Voucher specimens are housed in the Bishop Museum (BPBM), Honolulu.

The following contributions include new island records, new naturalized records, a range extension, and a name change of plants located on East Maui, Hawaii. Also included is a map of Maui showing locations of collections discussed in text. Voucher specimens are housed in the Bishop Museum, Honolulu (BISH).

We conducted a survey of the endangered Mariana Crow (Corvus kubaryi) population on Rota, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, in October-November 1995 to provide current information on numbers and distribution of this species. To allow direct comparisons with a previous survey, we resurveyed transects established in 1982 using the same field methods and used identical analysis...

We conducted the first quantitative surveys of forest bird and bat populations on the uninhabited island of Sarigan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Severe habitat degradation has occurred on Sarigan because of overgrazing by introduced goats and pigs. Planting of coconut palms (Cocos nucifera) for copra production has also eliminated much of the island’s native forest. We...