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West Virginia University Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Hileman, Eric T.

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304-293-6972
 Eric.Hileman@mail.wvu.edu 312A Percival Hall

Assistant Professor of Wildlife & Fisheries

Eric T. Hileman is an assistant professor in the Wildlife and Fisheries Resources program at WVU and serves as the quantitative ecologist for the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake Species Survival Plan. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Wisconsin‒Parkside and the University of Wisconsin‒Milwaukee, respectively, and earned his doctorate from Northern Illinois University. Prior to his current appointment, he was an assistant research professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture at Mississippi State University. Before this, he worked for nearly three years in the Brown Treesnake Laboratory in Yigo, Guam, as a Mendenhall Research Fellow for the USGS Fort Collins Science Center. Dr. Hileman’s research centers on population ecology. He uses a variety of sampling, methodological, and statistical methods such as capture-recapture and occupancy models to estimate population parameters and better understand the patterns and mechanisms regulating vital rates, population dynamics, and the distribution of species. Although he routinely studies snakes, he applies these approaches more generally to wildlife for inference in basic research and to inform conservation and wildlife management.

Publications

  1. Tetzlaff, S. J. M. A. Davis, G. W. Schuett, E. T. Hileman, J. H. Sperry, W. S. Brown. 2023. Maladapted in the Anthropocene: communal hyperfidelity in snakes. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 21: 266–268.
  2. Thacker, A. J., E. T. Hileman, P. Keenlance, E. McCluskey, A. Swinehart, J. Kovach, J. A. Moore. 2023. Modeling occupancy and detection probabilities to update the status of threatened eastern massasauga rattlesnake populations in Michigan, USA. Global Ecology and Conservation e02422
  3. Hileman, E. T., R. Powell, M. E. Gifford. 2022. Senescence and differential size-based survival in Puerto Rican giant groundlizards, Pholidoscelis exsul (Squamata: Teiidae), on Guana Island, British Virgin Islands. Herpetologica 78:184–191.
  4. Yackel Adams, A. A., P. D. Barnhart, G. H. Rodda, E. T. Hileman, M. G. Nafus, and R. N. Reed. 2021. Can we prove that an invasive species is absent? Evaluating whether brown treesnakes are established on the island of Saipan using surveillance and expert opinion. Management of Biological Invasions 12: 901–926.
  5. Goetz, S. M., E. T. Hileman, M.G. Nafus, A. A. Yackel Adams, A. Bryant, R. N. Reed, and S. R. Siers. 2021. Brown treesnake mortality after aerial application of toxic baits. Journal of Wildlife Management 85:1507–1514.
  6. Henderson, R. W., E. T. Hileman, R. A. Sajdak, R. Powell, B. C. Harrison, and D. R. Bradke. 2021. Effects of body size, diet, and transience on the demography of the arboreal boid snake Corallus grenadensis on Carriacou (Grenada Grenadines, West Indies). Population Ecology 63:177–188.
  7. Hileman, E. T., D. R. Bradke, M. G. Nafus, A. A. Yackel Adams, and R. N. Reed. 2021. Surface material and snout-vent length predict vertical scaling ability in brown treesnakes: an evaluation of multispecies barriers for invasive species control on Guam. Management of Biological Invasions 12:457–475. 
  8. Hileman, E. T., B. A. Eichelberger, J. Liske-Clark, P. D. Barnhart, R. N. Reed, A. A. Yackel Adams, and M. G. Nafus. 2020. Landscape dominance of introduced herpetofauna on an oceanic island. Global Ecology and Conservation 22:e00984.
  9. Bradke, D. R., R. L. Bailey, J. F. Bartman, H. Campa III, E. T. Hileman, C. Krueger, N. Kudla, Y. M. Lee, A. J. Thacker, and J. A. Moore. 2018. Sensitivity analysis using site-specific demographic parameters to guide research and management of threatened eastern massasaugas. Copeia 106:600–610.
  10. Bradke, D. R., E. T. Hileman, J. F. Bartman, L. J. Faust, R. B. King, N. Kudla, and J. A. Moore. 2018. Implications of small population size in a threatened pitviper. Journal of Herpetology 52:387–397.
  11. Cramer, K. L., and E. T. Hileman. 2018. Survival, movement, and abundance of a synanthropic population of the brown recluse spider, Loxosceles reclusa (Araneae: Sicariidae). Journal of Arachnology 46:420–427.
  12. Hileman, E. T., R. B. King, and L. J. Faust. 2018. Eastern massasauga demography and extinction risk under prescribed-fire scenarios. Journal of Wildlife Management 82:977–990.
  13. Hileman, E. T., M. C. Allender, D. R. Bradke, L. J. Faust, J. A. Moore, M. J. Ravesi, and S. J. Tetzlaff. 2018. Estimation of Ophidiomyces prevalence to evaluate snake fungal disease risk. Journal of Wildlife Management 82:173–181.
  14. Hileman, E. T., R. B. King, J. M. Adamski, T. G. Anton, R. L. Bailey, S. J. Baker, N. D. Bieser, T. A. Bell, Jr., K. M. Bissell, D. R. Bradke, H. Campa, III, G. S. Casper, K. Cedar, M. D. Cross, B. A. DeGregorio, M. J. Dreslik, L. J. Faust, D. S. Harvey, R. W. Hay, B. C. Jellen, B. D. Johnson, G. Johnson, B. D. Kiel, B. A. Kingsbury, M. J. Kowalski, Y. M. Lee, A. M. Lentini, J. C. Marshall, D. Mauger, J. A. Moore, R. A. Paloski, C. A. Phillips, P. D. Pratt, T. Preney, K. A. Prior, A. Promaine, M. Redmer, H. K. Reinert, J. D. Rouse, K. T. Shoemaker, S. Sutton, T. J. VanDeWalle, P. J. Weatherhead, D. Wynn, and A. Yagi. 2017. Climatic and geographic predictors of life history variation in eastern massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus): a range-wide synthesis. Plos One 12:e0172011.
  15. Hileman, E. T., R. Powell, G. Perry, K. Mougey, R. Thomas, and R. W. Henderson. 2017. Demography of the Puerto Rican racer, Borikenophis portoricensis (Squamata: Dipsadidae), on Guana Island, British Virgin Islands. Journal of Herpetology 51:454–460.
  16. Slater, O. M., L. J. Faust, E. T. Hileman, and S. R. Lavin. 2017. Plasma vitamin, mineral and biochemistry concentrations in free-ranging, adult eastern massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus) during spring egress. Journal of Herpetological Medicine and Surgery 27:29‒35.
  17. Allender, M. C., E. T. Hileman, J. Moore, and S. Tetzlaff. 2016. Detection of Ophidiomyces, the causative agent of snake fungal disease, in the eastern massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus) in Michigan, USA, 2014. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 52:694‒698.
  18. Stedman, A. L., C. P. Jaeger, E. T. Hileman, B. C. Jellen, C. A. Phillips, B. J. Swanson, and R. B. King. 2016. Multiple paternity in three wild populations of eastern massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus). Herpetological Conservation and Biology 11:160‒167.
  19. Allender, M. C., R. E. Junge, S. Baker-Wylie, E. T. Hileman, L. J. Faust, and C. Cray. 2015. Plasma electrophoretic profiles in the eastern massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus) and influences of age, sex, year, location, and snake fungal disease. Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine 46:767‒773.
  20. Hileman, E. T., D. R. Bradke, D. M. Delaney, and R. B. King. 2015. Protection by association: implications of scent trailing in neonate eastern massasaugas (Sistrurus catenatus). Herpetological Conservation and Biology 10:654‒660.
  21. Hileman, E. T., J. M. Kapfer, T. C. Muehlfeld, and J. H. Giovanni. 2015. Recouping lost information when mark-recapture data are pooled: a case study of milksnakes (Lampropeltis triangulum) in the upper midwestern United States. 49:428‒436
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