By Sherry F. Pruitt

Survival on a deserted island has been a hot topic for reality television programs -- but one Arkansas State University student is doing it for real.

Ken Levenstein, a doctoral student in environmental science, will camp in a tent for three months on the beach of Santiago Island 600 miles west of Ecuador, he said. It will be Levenstein's fourth summer to study Galapagos hawks on the uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean.

A graduate assistant from a Catholic university in Quito, Ecuador, will assist Levenstein in his research. But they will not have access to electricity, running water, cellular or satellite phones or any other modern conveniences. The only modern tool they will use is a global positioning system, though they will also have a marine radio for an emergency.

"It's wilderness," said Levenstein, who split his youth between New York City and Los Angeles and has been fascinated by nature since he was a boy. Birds were accessible to him because he lived near Central Park.

"I was walking around with a field guide to birds and a pair of binoculars at the age of 6. I also read every book about nature that I could get my hands on," he said.

Levenstein said he will communicate in Spanish with the graduate assistant, who will work on his undergraduate thesis.

Levenstein's work will be funded by a grant of nearly $1,000 from the Sigma Xi Grants-in-aid of Research program.

Levenstein is one of a handful of researchers who have spent time on the island. Among them is his adviser, Dr. James Bednarz, professor of biological sciences at ASU.

Levenstein said he sought out Arkansas State because he knew he would be able to work with Bednarz.

When Bednarz studied the hawks, he camped at the same site where Charles Darwin conducted some of his research in the 1830s, Bednarz said. However, Levenstein will camp a couple miles from that site, he added.

Levenstein is the second ASU student to go to the island to study hawks.

From 1998 through 2003, Levenstein and his collaborators captured, measured, banded and collected blood from 390 Galapagos hawks, Levenstein said.

The hawks are caught with wire cage traps featuring nooses and using rats for bait, Levenstein said, adding that no rats are harmed in the process.

Hawks are marked using color-coded, numbered bands so that Levenstein can identify them with binoculars or a spotting scope.

Levenstein, who is a teaching assistant at A-State, said his research is conducted over 33 territories that are about one-quarter square mile in size. Each breeding group has its own territory that the group guards and lives within.

"I look at various aspects of their ecology and their behavior to determine what might be driving this system," he said.

The work on the 220-square-mile island of harsh terrain and razor-sharp lava fields is "grueling," Levenstein said, and it is not uncommon to see goat skeletons in crevices that drop 20 feet.

After stocking up on supplies, the student said he will be dropped off by boat on the island. One to two times during the summer, he will relocate and restock supplies. Containers for water and food are rented from the Charles Darwin Research Station.

"It takes you back to the 19th century -- to the days of Darwin," Levenstein said. "It's us, the hawks and nature."

Even though it is hard work, spending time on the island is "rejuvenating" and "peaceful," he said. There's no worrying about bills, school and deadlines. "Sea lions visit, and sea turtles breed on the beach at night.

"It's a different world. It's magical," Bednarz added.