Department of Zoology, University of Hawai`i 2538 McCarthy Mall, Edmondson 152 Honolulu, HI 96822 fax: (808) 956-9812 conant@hawaii.edu
[publications] [graduate students]Life history, ecology and conservation of Hawaiian birds have been the focus of my research for over 30 years. Past research has included studies of altitudinal distribution of birds in relation to environmental factors, ornithological surveys of large natural areas, avian census techniques, and a variety of natural history subjects such as plant and invertebrate distributions. More recently my work has included studies of geographic variation in morphology, genetics and behavior of three species of endangered passerines in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. I am currently testing hypotheses that might explain genetic and morphological variation among populations of the Laysan Finch (Telespiza cantans) and between the extant Nihoa Millerbird (Acrocephalus familiaris kingi) and the extinct Laysan Millerbird (A. f. familiaris). My graduate students undertake research on these topics, as well as plant-pollinator interactions, conservation biology of rare plants and invertebrates, impacts of alien species on native Hawaiian biota and seabird behavior and conservation.
Hawai'i has lost more species than any other geographic area on Earth. This extinction crisis continues today, as biologists and managers work to prevent the loss of hundreds of endangered species, including more than 30 birds, 300 plants and at least 150 species of invertebrates. In the last decade my research and that of my students has sought, among other things, to document the ecologies of some of these threatened species and, through basic ecological research, to provide a sound biological basis for effecting their recovery.
Tarr CL, Conant S, Fleischer RC. 1998. Founder events and variation at microsatellite loci in an insular passerine bird, the Laysan Finch (Telespiza cantans). Molec Ecol 7:719-731.
Conant S, Pratt HD, Shallenberger RJ. 1998. Reflections on a 1975 ornithological expedition to the lost world of the Alaka'i and other notes on the natural history, systematics and conservation of Kaua'i birds. Wilson Bull 110:1-22.
Morin MP, Conant S, Conant P. 1997. Laysan and Nihoa Millerbirds (Acrocephalus familiaris familiaris and A. f. kingi). In: Poole A, F Gill, editors. The Birds of North America. No. 302. Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences.
Seto NWH, Conant S 1996. The effects of rat (Rattus rattus) predation
on the reproductive success of the Bonin petrel (Pterodroma hypoleuca)
on Midway Atoll. Colonial Waterbirds 19:171-185.