Publications

We examined ‘ōpe‘ape‘a, or Hawaiian hoary bat (Lasiurus semotus; Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae), acoustic activity and surveyed potential roost trees at the Ford Island Chief Petty Officer’s (CPO) Bungalows Neighborhood of Pearl Harbor National Memorial (PERL) on the island of O‘ahu. We established four acoustic monitoring stations (PERL1–PERL4) that operated nightly to survey for ‘ōpe...

Evaluating invasive species removal can help improve efficacy or application of control tools. Toxic baiting is a primary method used to suppress many invasive species, including the brown treesnake (Boiga irregularis) in Guam. Based on limited alternative approaches to assess tool efficacy in snake removal, bait take is often used as a proxy for snake removal, despite evidence that...

Avian malaria is an existential threat to a majority of native Hawaiian forest birds. Climate change is facilitating the spread of malaria to historically disease-free areas, and despite the risk of native Hawaiian forest bird extinctions from malaria outbreaks, no comprehensive disease management plans exist for forest bird conservation areas. Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge...

Palila (Loxioides bailleui) are critically endangered Hawaiian honeycreepers specializing on māmane (Sophora chrysophylla) seeds and restricted to Mauna Kea volcano on the Island of Hawaiʻi. Recently, the population was estimated to decline by 89% between 1998 and 2021, despite decades of ungulate removal, fence construction, māmane regeneration, fire suppression, and predator control...

The Birds, Not Mosquitoes Monitoring and Support Science Working Group detailed methods for monitoring the population response of Hawaiian forest birds during implementation of the Incompatible Insect Technique (IIT) on the islands of Maui and Kauaʻi. The group prioritized methods for measuring the influence of mosquito suppression on populations within IIT treatment and control areas...

Aim

Hawaii has experienced profound declines in native avifauna alongside the introduction of numerous bird species. While site-specific population studies are common, landscape-level analyses of avian population dynamics are rare, particularly in island ecosystems. To address this gap, we used a density surface model to create a spatio-temporal projection of population densities and...

1. Understanding the host preferences of non-native polyphagous insects is a key step in anticipating their impacts. 2. We apply a technique from wildlife ecology, a resource selection function, to quantify the host preferences of Acalolepta aesthetica Olliff (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae) in its non-native range on the Island of Hawaiʻi. We then visually surveyed its preferred...

Trapping mosquitoes to quantify their distribution and abundance is often a key step in monitoring dynamics of vector-borne diseases. This is the case in Hawaii, where avian malaria is devastating native forest birds that are highly susceptible to non-native diseases. However, mosquito trapping is difficult and labor intensive. A typical operation requires traps to be visited multiple...

Introduced pathogens exert novel selection on hosts, and although many host species have experienced drastic population declines in the absence of adaptation, some hosts have adapted to highly virulent pathogens. For instance, mosquitoes and Plasmodium relictum introduced to the Hawaiian Islands have resulted in extinctions and catastrophic population declines due to avian malaria...

The Palila (Loxioides bailleui), the last member of the once speciose finch-billed Hawaiian honeycreeper clade (Drepanidinae) in the main Hawaiian Islands, faces critical conservation challenges as an endangered species. Understanding the drivers of its decline is essential for effective management. We used additive decomposition models to examine temporal trends in climatic variables...

The majority of raptor species reside in the tropics, yet very little is known about their movement ecology. However, quantifying movement behavior can provide otherwise elusive information on resource needs, habitat selection, and ecological constraints, which is important for understanding ecological patterns and the management of species of conservation concern. On the Island of Hawai...