Biological surveys and Monitoring

Pacific Rim Conservation undertakes a variety of biological surveys and monitoring for a wide range of clients throughout Hawaii and the Pacific region. We use scientifically recognized methods to measure presence, abundance, and status of bird, bat, plant, and pest populations. Techniques include transects, point counts, and other distance-based methods, mist-netting and banding, mark-recapture analysis, spot-mapping, nest searching and monitoring, geolocation, and GIS. Use of recognized monitoring procedures helps ensure accuracy and consistency and facilitates comparison among projects. When possible, results from biological surveys are submitted for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals with clients as co-authors.

Survey and monitoring projects

• Surveys for the endangered Hawaiian hoary bat at Kokee on Kauai, using state of the art Anabat bat detectors, in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force.
  
  
• Surveys for Newell’s Shearwaters and Hawaiian Petrels using auditory detection methods and night-vision equipment on Kauai, in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force.
  
  
• Island-wide surveys and long-term monitoring of Oahu Elepaio populations to evaluate effects of predator control and mosquito-borne diseases, including estimation of annual survival, nest monitoring, and calculating population growth, in collaboration with the Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife, the U.S. Army, and the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii.
  Report 15, Report 22, Report 41 (All reports are in PDF format)
  
  
• Surveys of Hawaiian forest birds using Variable Circular Plot methods, in collaboration with the Hawaiian Forest Bird Inter-Agency Database Project run by the
  U.S. Geological Survey Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center
  
  
• Banding and monitoring of survival and nesting success of Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) at Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve on Oahu to assist managers from the Hawai`i Natural Area Reserve System.