Layla Rohde, B.S.

Layla Rohde serves San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance as a Research Assistant in Recovery Ecology. At the Maui Bird Conservation Center, She helps to maintain and breed several populations of some of the most critically endangered Hawaiian forest bird species through daily husbandry, diet preparation, and aviary and facility maintenance. Layla has diverse research interests, including diet and microbiome in managed facilities versus in the wild, ethology, particularly courtship and mate choice, variation in sexual dimorphism and across individuals, anthrozoology, especially in native Hawaiian culture, and animal learning and communication. She is currently supporting other ongoing research efforts.

Layla earned her Bachelor's degree in Zoology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is most interested in endangered species ecology and passionate about preserving the unique biodiversity of her homeland in the Hawaiian islands. She previously worked on the Hawaii Invertebrate Program’s Pulelehua Project, a breeding for re-population effort for the declining Hawaiian endemic Kamehameha butterfly, as well as at the Marine Mammal Research Program of the University of Hawaii’s Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, and in aquaponics research. She is thrilled to be sharing and expanding her knowledge of native Hawaiian forest ecology through her current work with Hawaiian honeycreepers. Layla enjoys being out in nature, especially hiking and snorkeling, and expressing her passions through the art forms of aerial dance and poetry.