Intern Account: Malia:
"The travel out to the island on this field day was the most difficult we had ever experienced due to fairly deep water, wind, and waves. When we arrived on the islet, I expected to find the number of ants decreasing, since bait was spread throughout the islet for the second time about two weeks ago. After laying out the ant baits of spam, honey, and peanut butter, we began the transect. I followed closest the northern side of the islet. There seemed to be fewer ants in my area as a whole. In the naupaka (where there are usually a prolific number of ants) there were fewer ants than last time. Each time I found ants, I only found a few at a time. The dry areas remained ant-less and the lush areas showed a significant decrease in the ant population. When examining Plot 1, again there seemed to be fewer ants than before. We were afraid that becuase of the slight increase in population the week before, the ant population would begin to follow that increasing trend. The nest that was found in the beginning of our field work was still demolished. In that area we only found three or four ants. There were sparse patches with few ants throughout the plot, but there were no nests present. While picking up the ant bait, the number of ants seems to be decreasing after the respreading of the poison. There is always one area near the naupaka bushes where there are hundreds upon hundreds of ants present, so we think that a nest may be present under the nearby rock. We noticed no other seabirds killed due to the dog that swims out to the island. But we did notice one seabird's head ripped off and pecked out by what could possibly be an owl. I hope that the ant population continues to dwindle."