Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Elepaio nest monitoring and black rat mark recapture data 2015-2017

• Main Authors: Banko, Paul C, Jaenecke, Kelly A, Peck, Robert W., Brinck, Kevin W
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: U.S. Geological Survey 2018
• Subjects: Ecology,Wildlife Biology; Rattus rattus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5066/p93tom58; https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/5b8729b7e4b0702d0e79667e

In Hawaii and other oceanic islands with few native land mammals, black rats (Rattus rattus) are among the most damaging invasive vertebrate species to native forest bird populations and habitats, due to their arboreal behavior and generalist foraging habitats and habitat use. We evaluated the nesting response of Hawaii Elepaio (Chasiempis sandwichensis; Monarchidae), a generalist insectivore, to the removal of black rats using rodenticide in a before-after-control-impact study in high and low, mesic montane habitat recovering from long-term damage from introduced ungulates and weeds. We monitored nesting and rat activity during 2015-2016 before applying diphacinone bait in 2017 to remove rats from two 700 x 700-m treatment plots that were paired with two non-treatment plots. We continued monitoring through July 2017. This data release consists of three tabular datasets including nest monitoring data, rat capture data, and spatial data for all field plots.