White-throated Capuchin

(Cebus capucinus)

Information supplied by "The Pictorial Guide to The Living Primates

Taxonomy 4 subspecies

Distinguishing Characteristics:  White-throated capuchins have a white to yellowish throat, head and shoulders.  The back and prehensile tail are black.  The hair on the crown forms a V.

Physical Characteristics:  Head and body length: 335-453mm (13.2-17.8in).  Tail length: 3350-551mm (13.8-21.7in)  Weight: Female 2666g (5.9lb), Male 3868g (8.5lb).  Intermembral index:  NA.  Adult brain weight:   79.2g (2.8oz).

Habitat:  Primary and secondary evergreen rain forest, mangroves, deciduous dry forest from sea level to 2100m (6890ft).  The main canopy is preferred.

Diet:  Fruits (95 types), 65%; leaves, 15%, berries, nuts, seeds, shoots, buds and flowers (24 species), gums, bark, and animal matter, including insects, spiders, small vertebrates (birds, infant squirrels, baby coatimundis, and lizards), eggs, crabs, and oysters, 20%.

Life History Weaning: 12mo.  Sexual maturity: 36mo.   Estrus cycle: NA  Gestation: 157-167d.  Age 1st Birth: 48mo.  Birth interval: 19mo.  Life span:  46.9y.  Birth peak: Dec-Apr.  Infants are born with a gray face and ears but look like the adults by 3 months.

Locomotion:  Quadrupedal; jumping to 3-4m (10ft-13ft).

Social Structure:  Multimale-multifemale groups with more females than males.  Males defend the territory.  Emigration: Males emigrate and may remain solitary before joining another group.  Group size:  10-20  Home range: 32-85.5ha  Day range: 1200-2000m (3937-6562ft).

Behavior:  Diurnal and arboreal.  White-throated capuchins, like many primates, enhance the health of the forest by pollinating some plants and dispersing the seeds of others.  When they eat the buds of Gustavia simaruba, branching of the tree increases, enhancing fruit production.  Males forage near or on the ground for large vertebrates and invertebrates.  This species is active before dawn and is often noisy.  Allogrooming increases during the birth season and the dry season, when foraging is done on the ground and there are more ticks.  Jumping up and down shaking branches are part of the threat display.  Association:  This species occasionally associates with black-handed spider monkeys. (Ateles geoffroyi).   Mating: Promiscuous.  A special "protruded lip face and warble vocalization" proceed mating.  Scent marking: Marks are made by urinating on hands, feet, and tail tip.  Vocalizations: 14, including an arrawh loud call given when an individual is out of sight of the group and wants to regain contact.  A "purr" us a friendly appeasement call.  Sleeping site:  This capuchin has been observed to spend 47% of it's nights in 1 sleeping tree in the core area of its home range.  Groups of 2-4 individuals sleep together. Ecuador to Honduras.

White-fronted Capuchin

(Cebus albifrons)

Information supplied by "The Pictorial Guide to The Living Primates

Taxonomy:  11 subspecies

Distinguishing Characteristics:  The body of white-fronted capuchins varies from light to dark brown.  They have a dark brown wedge-shaped cap, yellowish underparts, and a prehensile tail that is dark at the base and light yellow at the tip.

Physical Characteristics: Head and body length: 358-460mm (14.1-18.1in) Tail length: 401-475mm (15.8-18.7in)  Weight: Female 1400-2228g (3.1-4.9lb) Male 1700-3260g (3.7-7.2lb) Intermembral index: 82.  Adult brain weight: 82g (2.9oz).

Habitat:  Primary deciduous, gallery, mangrove, and flooded forest up to 2000m (6562ft).

Diet:  Dry season - fruit, 53%; seeds, 42%; nectar, 3%; pith, 1% animal prey.  Wet season - fruit, 99%.  These capuchins use 68 plant species.   Half of the animal prey is social insects: termites, ants, and wasp larvae and pupae.

Life History Weaning: 9mo.  Sexual maturity: Female 43.1mo   Estrus cycle: NA Gestation: 162d. Age 1st birth: 48mo  Birth interval: 18mo   Life span: 44y.

Locomotion:  Quadrupedal walking, running, and jumping to 4m (13ft).

Social Structure: Multimale-multifemale groups with fewer males than females. Home ranges overlap greatly. Group size: 10-30. Home range: 200-300ha.   Day range: 1850m (6070ft).

Behavior: Diurnal and arboreal.  White-fronted capuchins prefer the middle strata of the forest (15-30m) (49-98ft) but forage on the ground up to 10% of the time.  One male dominates the troop, and social grooming involves mostly the alpha male or female and the offspring.  The dominant male's response to an aerial predator is to hide and not give an alarm bark until other males form a coalition to threaten the predator.  The alpha male is very aggressive to other groups whenever 2 groups meet.  Adult males associate together and cooperatively defend their group, whereas each female forages separately, avoiding other adults.  Feeding ecology influences male mating strategy, aggression, and cooperation.  Unlike tufted capuchins (C.. apella), which get 63% of their diet in small-crowned trees (<10m(<33ft) in diameter), this species gets 50% of its diet in large-crowned trees (<20m(66ft).  A large patch of food in a large-crowned tree cannot be monopolized, so food-related aggression is rare.  White-fronted males mate promiscuously and cannot be certain of paternity, so they do not come to the defense of a juvenile when it squeals.  Activity budget: Insect foraging, 39% plant feeding, 22% travel, 21% rest, 18%.  Association:  This species associates with tufted capuchins (C. apella) and displaces them at fruit sources during the dry season.  It associates regularly with common squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) and reportedly associates with black-headed uacaris (Cacajao melanocephalus).   Mating:  The dominant male follows as estrous female and sniffs her urine.   Little male-male aggression is seen during estrus.  Scent marking:  Marks are made by rubbing the chest on branches.  Vocalizations:  Loud vocalizations advertise a troop's location, and other groups avoid the area.   Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.

Tufted or Brown Capuchin

(Cebus apella)

Information supplied by "The Pictorial Guide to The Living Primates

          Nigritus                     Apella                      Libidinosus

Taxonomy:  Disputed. 10 subspecies.  The yellow-breasted capuchin ( C. a. xanthosternos), which is included with this species, was recently reconized as a species, but little is known about its behavior.

Distinguishing Characteristics:  The cap of tufted capuchins is made of short, erect black hairs that may form 2 ridges or "tufts" on either side of the crown.  The shoulders are lighter than the overall body color, which varies from light to dark brown.  The facial pattern varies with the subspecies, except for the black sideburns.  The hands and feet are always black.  The prehensile tail is darkest at the tip.

Physical Characteristics:  Head and body length:   350-488mm (13.8-19.2in)  Tail length: 375-488mm (14.8-19.2in)  Weight: Female: 1370-3400g (3.0-7.5lb)  Male: 1300-4800g (2.9-10.6lb)  Intermembral index: 82  Adult brain weight: 71g (2.5oz).

Habitat:  Fruit, 66%; seeds, 25%; pith, 7%; nectar, 1%; animal prey, including insects, birds, eggs, reptiles, bats, and mammals up to 900g (32oz) in body weight.  These capuchins eat 96 species of fruit.  The pith of scheelea palm fronds is a keystone food during the dry season when fruit is scarce.

Life History:  Infant: 6mo  Weaning: 12mo   Juvenile: 6-24mo  Subadult: 24-42mo  Sexual maturity: Female: 84mo   Male: 56mo   Estrus cycle: 18d  Gestation: 149-158d  Age 1st birth: 42mo  Birth interval 22mo  Life span 40y Birth seasons Oct-Jan.   Offspring 1.  Females have no estrous swelling.

Locomotion:  Quadrupedal; jumping to 3-4m (10-13ft).

Social Structure: Multimale-multifemale groups with equal numbers of males and females.  One male is dominant to all the others, and young males may form a socially separate subgroup.  Group size: 8-14.  Home range: 25-40ha, to 355ha  Day range: 2000m (6562ft).

Behavior: Diurnal and arboreal.  Tufted capuchins are very intelligent and curious.  It has been hypothesized that intelligence is related to the way an animal searches for food.  Searching for hard-to-find foods that are available only for a short time, such as insects and fruit, may require a larger brain and more energy-rich foods to maintain it.  This species shows submission by a genital display and raised eyebrows.  The alpha male responds to aerial predators by giving loud barks and remaining visible while the rest of the troop flees.  When 2 groups meet at a food tree, the dominant male leads the attack; otherwise there is very little intergroup aggression.  The dominant male rapidly comes to the defense of juveniles that he has probably fathered, bu he is aggressive to juvenile males born before his tenure in the group.  Capuchins have been reported to hunt for and capture frogs that live in bamboo stems.  Captors of frogs rarely share their prize food with infants or others in the group.  Allomothering is common.  Capuchins do not recognize themselves in a mirror.  These monkeys have been trained to perform tasks for quadriplegics.  Associations:  Tufted capuchins associate with white-fronted capucins (C. albifrons) are displaced by them at fruit sources during the dry season.  Tufted capuchins associate with white-nosed bearded sakis (Chiropotes albinasus), occassionally with buffy sakis (Pithecia albicans), and reportedly with black-headed uscaris (Cacajao melanocephalus).  Tufted capuchins are often followed by a troop of common squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus).   Mating: During the first two-thirds of estrus, females constantly follow and solicit the alpha male by using distinct calls, facial expressions, and postures.   The male copulates only once a day.  In the last 2 days of estrus, the dominant male "guards" the female from the subordinate males.  When he stops guarding, the female copulates quickly with the other males in the group.   After mating, tufted capuchins display a "reverse mount" in which the "female mounts the male, clasping him around the waist with her arms and riding his lower back.  Scent marking:  Each individual maintains olfactory identity by washing its palms and feet in its own urine and scratching its fur.  Females may monitor male smell to detect sexual maturity.  Males do not conspicuously monitor females.  Vocalizations:  Alarms calls are given at the sight of large raptors.   In French Guiana the harpy eagle's second most common prey is capuchin monkeys.   Sleeping site:  Palm trees are preferred.  Northern and Central South America.

A former subspecies of C. apella, the yellow-breasted capuchin (C. a. xanthosternos) was proposed as a valid species in 1995.  It is critically endangered.

  WEEPER OR WEDGE-CAPPED CAPUCHIN

(Cebus olivaceus)

Information supplied by "The Pictorial Guide to The Living Primates

Taxonomy:  Disputed. 5 subspecies.  Until 1978 the name of this species was C. nigrivittatus.  In 1992 a new capuchin (C. kaapori) was discovered and described in Brazil.  It is included here because little is known about its behavior.

Distinguishing Characteristics:  Weeper capuchins have a tawny brown body, yellowish shoulders and upper arms, and a brownish yellow head with a V-shaped brown cap.   The prehensile tail is brown, and the back of the head and neck is reddish.

Physical Characteristics:  Head and body length: 374-460mm (14.7-18.1in)   Tail Length: 400-554mm (15.7-21.8in)  Weight: Female: 2395g (5.3lb) Male: 2974g (6.6lb)  Intermembral index: N.A.  Adult Brain weight: 80.8g (2.8oz)   Females are born with an elongated clitoris that looks similar to a penis, and they have an os clitoris, a bone that is similar to a baculum.

Habitat:  Evergreen rain forest, dry forest, and submontane forest up to 2000m (6562ft).

Diet:  Fruit, seeds, and animal prey, including snails (32%) and social insects (22%).

Life History:  Infant: 12mo Weaning: 24mo Juvenile: 24-72mo Subadult: 72-144mo, Sexual maturity: NA  Estrus cycle: NA  Gestation: NA Age 1st birth: 72mo Birth interval: 12-24mo  Life span: NA Year-round.  Birth peak: May-Jun.

Locomotion:  Quadrupedal walking, running, and jumping to 3m (10ft).

Social Structure: Multimale-Multifemale groups with only 1 breeding male.   Male hierarchical rank is by age and size.  Female rank is matrilineal.

Emigration:  Males emigrate as early as age 2.  Group ranges overlap, but intergroup interactions are avoided.  Groups size: 10-33.  Home range: NA Day range: 2300m (7546ft).

Behavior:  Diurnal and arboreal.  Weeper capuchins forage on the ground (14.5%) and in the canopy.  The activity budgets of females in small groups (16) are different in different seasons, unlike the activity budgets of females in large groups (32), which do not vary.  During the wet season, small groups spend a high percentage of time traveling and gathering food, with little rest.  In the dry season, food gathering time is the same, but they travel much less and rest more.   The larger groups have priority access to small food patches, so smaller groups, which are displaced, must conserve energy.  Females in large groups have higher fecundity and higher expected lifetime reproductive success than females in small groups.   "High ranking females may have an earlier age of first reproduction and a slightly shorter interbirth interval."  The benefit of kinship appear(s) to be a reduction is aggression rather than increased affiliation.  Aggression displays including bouncing and branch shaking.  Social play among juveniles takes place when the adults are resting.  Subordinates "grin" in the presence of a dominant to appease and promote contact.  Allomothering has been reported.

Association:  Weeper capuchins have an agonistic relationship with red howlers (Alouatta seniculus) when they meet in the same fig tree.  Scent Marking:  Urine washing.  Vocalizations: 12. The common name "weeper" comes from the plaintive quality on one of the contact vocalizations.  This species has 3 spacing calls - huh to maintain distance between individuals, arrawks to decrease distance, and hehs to increase distance.  They originate from: Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia

Copyright 1994 Monkeyzone.com All rights reserved.  We or our content providers own all of the content on our website, including text, customized graphics, photographs, data, images, audio, video clips and software