Living in Islands of Forests: Nutritional Ecology of the Howler Monkey ( Alouatta palliata) at La Suerte Biological Field Station, North-Eastern Costa Rica

This unique book allows to be used as a textbook and a resource in field schools and universities, as well as for field research. It can easily provide a general and deep overview, as well serve as a species and inventory guide of Central American biodiversity, its natural resources and habitats for some of the most prolific habitats: the low elevation rainforest (location of La Suerte Biological station, Costa Rica), the tropical dry forest and lake system (location of the Ometepe Island station, Nicaragua), and Central America as a whole (including its unique coastal, marine and atmospheric heritage). These land—and seascapes are globally praised for their huge and unique species richness, but are also known for their fast decay. This book fills a niche, and it is based on over a decade of teaching and research experience of the main author, his international colleagues and students at both sites run by the Maderas Rainforest Conservancy The authors also have a wide experience with the historical and international context and with the political ecology for the region, as well as with analyzing complex biodiversity and landscapes, the Caribbean, Central America, and with open access geographic information system (GIS) data and modeling; this emphasize is shared here with the audience. Locally, the two field sites featured cover many relevant habitats (tropical rainforest, dry forest, freshwater, volcano, cloud forest, Caribbean and Pacific coast, agriculture). The conservation urgency regarding biodiversity and tropical forest loss, habitat conversion, and its social decay does hardly need further mentioning and in times of ongoing climate change and globalization. Unique data have been compiled in this publication for the first time (digitally, with GIS and online). This book tackles wildlife management in the tropics: from sea turtles and sea floor benthos over plants and trees to insects, birds, small mammals, monkeys, sloths, tapirs, amphibians, and reptiles. The digital online appendix of this book provides relevant and highly seeked-after background material for any naturalist, e.g., digital species check lists for field stations, GIS maps, course syllabi, and photos.