White-faced capuchin

White-faced capuchins live in Central America.

They live in forests that have a rainy time and a dry time each year.

White-faced capuchins live in Central America, from Honduras through Nicaragua and Costa Rica to Panama. They live in tropical forests where there is a wet season and a dry season, so different trees have fruit at different times of year.

They spend most of their time in the trees but climb down to the ground many times a day. They can live at forest edges and in forest that has been logged. In Santa Rosa, Costa Rica, they walk to waterholes to drink every day in the dry season.

The species occurs from Honduras south through Nicaragua and Costa Rica to Panama; the Colombian white-faced capuchin, C. capucinus, replaces it in South America (New England Primate Conservancy). Most field research on "Cebus capucinus" was in fact done on this species in Costa Rica and Panama.

Its Neotropical forests are strongly seasonal in rainfall and temperature, so fruit is patchy in space and time. Capuchins are arboreal but descend to the ground often, tolerate forest edge and timber forest, and in the dry season at Santa Rosa, Costa Rica, visit fresh waterholes daily, sometimes foraging out from them.

Capuchins eat fruit and lots of bugs.

They look under bark and in ant nests. Sometimes they catch a lizard.

White-faced capuchins are omnivores. They love fruit, but they also spend a lot of time hunting insects: about 70 percent of their foraging time goes into finding bugs such as butterflies, ants and beetles. Sometimes they catch squirrels or lizards.

When they find a big fruit tree, they use it as a base and make short trips to find other food. In Costa Rica they are called "monos muy bravos", bold monkeys, because they will raid bee nests and even steal food from scientists' traps.

Capuchins are mainly frugivorous but eat many insects, especially butterflies, ants and beetles, and opportunistically take squirrels and lizards; insects are important for lactating females. About 70 percent of foraging time is spent searching for insects (New England Primate Conservancy).

Foraging is flexible: troops follow routes between fruiting trees, use a large tree as a temporary base, and spread out to reduce competition. Extracting ants from nests and beetles from bark gives them prey other primates miss. Licking the flowers of Luehea speciosa while moving from tree to tree may make them pollinators, and they disperse the seeds of the fruit they eat.

Capuchins live in family groups called troops.

They groom each other and play. They trill to say "let's go!"

White-faced capuchins live in troops of about 16, sometimes up to 40. A troop has an alpha male, related females such as sisters and cousins, their young, and males who joined from other troops. Females usually stay in the troop where they were born.

They start at dawn, look for fruit, rest in the heat of the day and find a tall sleeping tree in the evening, huddling together for warmth. Adult females give a trill call to tell the troop it is time to move on. Grooming and play keep friendships strong.

Troops average about 16 (up to 40): an alpha male, typically 10 to 15 years old, matrilineally related females, juveniles and immigrant males. Females are philopatric and rank just below their mothers; the alpha fathers most infants and is the most vigilant guard, while subordinate males help defend the troop (New England Primate Conservancy).

Troops sleep huddled at stable forks of tall trees and rarely reuse a site two nights in a row. Adult females trill to lead the group to the next feeding site; disputes are mostly settled vocally. Allogrooming, play and unusual habits such as mutual finger- or tail-sucking maintain bonds. Predators include jaguars and raptors.

Capuchins need their forests.

Some people catch them as pets. Monkeys should live wild with their families.

The white-faced capuchin is listed as Vulnerable. Forests are cleared for farms, cattle ranches and logging. Capuchins can live in forest edges, but some farmers see them as pests and hunt them, and some are hunted for food.

Because they are so clever and cute, capuchins are also caught to be pets or trained for shows. Young capuchins need their mothers and troop to grow up healthy, so monkeys should never be pets.

The IUCN lists Cebus imitator as Vulnerable, with a decreasing population (Williams-Guillen and colleagues, assessed 2020, published 2021). Conversion of forest to agriculture and livestock pasture, and logging, are the main threats. Capuchins persist in edge and altered forest, but farmers often hunt them as crop pests, and some are hunted for bushmeat (New England Primate Conservancy).

Capture for the pet trade and for entertainment breaks up troops whose members depend on social bonds. The species is listed in CITES Appendix II. Its dietary and habitat flexibility has probably helped it fare better than many primates where forest has been destroyed.