Sheila Conant
PhD Oklahoma (Zoology), 1972
Professor, Department of Zoology
University of Hawai`i
2538 McCarthy Mall, Dean Hall 107
Honolulu, HI 96822
phone: (808) 956-8241
fax: (808) 956-9812
conant@hawaii.edu
www.hawaii.edu/eecb/FacultyPgs/sheilaconant.html

Currently not accepting any new graduate students

Life history, ecology and conservation biology of endemic Hawaiian birds; island biology
Life history, ecology and conservation of Hawaiian birds have been the focus of my research for the last 40 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 and how birds were used in Hawaiian material culture. 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. 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. We are also interested in environmental conflict resolution and how interactions between science, policy and management affect natural resource conservation.

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Yeung, N. W. D.B. Carlon and S. Conant. 2009. Testing subspecies hypothesis with molecular markers and morphometrics in the Pacific white tern complex. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 98, 586-595.

Rauzon, M, and S. Conant 2009. Seabirds. In: Gillespie, R. and D. Clague (eds.) Encyclopedia of Islands. Univ. of Calif. Press.

Amante-Helweg, V. L. U., and S. Conant. 2009. Hawaiian culture and forest birds. Chapter 3, pp. 59-79, in T. K. Pratt, C. T. Atkinson, P. C. Banko, J. D. Jacobi, and B. L. Woodworth. Conservation biology of Hawaiian forest birds: Implications for island avifauna. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.

Plentovich, S., A. Hebshi and S. Conant. 2008. Detrimental effects of two widespread invasive ant species on weight and survival of colonial nesting seabirds in the Hawaiian Islands. Biol. Invasions in press.

Hays, W. T. and S. Conant. 2007. Biology and Impacts of Pacific Islands Invasive Species. 1. A Worldwide Review of Effects of the Small Indian Mongoose, Herpestes javanicus (Carnivora: Herpestidae) Pac. Sci. 61:3-16.

Conant, S. 2005. Honeycreepers in Hawaiian Material Culture. Pp.278-284. In: The Hawaiian Honeycreepers: Drepanidinae. H. Douglas Pratt, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Morin, M. P. and S. Conant. 2002. Laysan (Telespiza cantans) and Nihoa (Telespiza ultima) Finches. No. 639 in: The Birds of North America. (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.; The American Ornithologists' Union.

Scott, J.M., S. Conant, and C. van Riper III (eds.) 2001. Evolution, Ecology, Conservation, and Management of Hawaiian Birds: A Vanishing Avifauna. Studies in Avian Biology, No. 22.

Tarr, C.L., J.D. Ballou, M.P. Morin and S. Conant. 2000. Microsatellite variation in simulated and natural founder populations of the Laysan Finch (Telespiza cantans). Conservation Genetics 1:135-146.

Conant, S., H.D. Pratt and R. J. Shallenberger. 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 Bulletin 110: 1-22.

Morin, M. P., S. Conant and P. Conant. 1997. Laysan and Nihoa Millerbirds (Acrocephalus familiaris familiaris and A. f. kingi). No. 302. In The Birds of North America. (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.; The American Ornithologists' Union.

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