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This chapter explores variation in orangutan diets across their range, based on food lists. The authors of the chapter consolidated orangutan food lists from all available long-term field sites (N = 15). They represent both islands, multiple habitat types, varied degrees of degradation, and wild and rehabilitant populations. The chapter assesses the effects of habitat productivity (island, habitat type, habitat degradation) and rehabilitant–wild status on food lists. Findings suggest inverse relationships between habitat productivity and total plant taxa eaten at a site, the intensity at which individual food taxa are used, and the proportion of plant food species from which important food types are eaten. Analyses also explore food lists to suggest medical plant use, cultural influences on food knowledge, and the relationship between orangutan and other great ape diets. Discussion concerns conceptual implications of findings, methodological limitations to using food lists in the study of diet, and conservation applications.

This chapter examines caregiving that has evolved among numerous independent lineages of invertebrates. Diverse forms of care include the production of trophic eggs, defence, facilitation of feeding, viviparity, nest building, and provisioning of food. Three ecological hypotheses (environmental prime movers, feeding ecology, life history costs of care) and an intrinsic hypothesis (haplodiploidy) have been proposed to understand the origins of care. The comparative approach and modelling have also been employed to understand male vs. female care and transitions between patterns of care. Many examples of exclusive paternal care are related to territorial behaviour and the potential for polygyny. For male parents that carry offspring, it is not clear whether sexual selection or the lack of suitable oviposition sites was the driving force for paternal behaviour. Biparental care originated in competitive environments and appears to be maintained by the need for nest building, and can be stabilized by the co-occurrence of task specialization and behavioural flexibility. There is continuing disagreement over the likelihood of the loss of complex social adaptations such as parental care. Frequent loss of care has been argued most forcefully for maternal guarding behaviour because of the need to reduce the costs to female fecundity. Paternal care and complex provisioning in a nest may be more resistant to loss over evolutionary time. An emerging insight is that microbes are of more than simply a hygienic concern for caregivers. Parents are active managers of the nest, with complex adaptations to enhance benefits and reduce costs from the microbial community.

The herpetofauna of Mesoamerica is one of the richest and complex vertebrate faunas, involving more than 210 genera, comprising approximately 693 species of reptiles and 598 species of amphibians. This chapter examines the biodiversity and biogeographical aspects of reptiles and amphibians in the dry-forest environments of Mesoamerica. It discusses their resource and microhabitat use, feeding ecology, reproduction, and adaptations to the changing seasonal climate. Finally, it discusses some of the recommendations for the conservation of herpetofauna of Mesoamerican dry forests.