The White-faced Capuchin Monkey of Costa Rica

When you go to a Costa Rica excursions for a rainforest walk, you will be delighted to see the Capuchin monkeys playing, hanging or just relaxing on trees. These creatures that are only native in the forests of Costa Rica are the few species of the so-called “New World Monkeys”.

Appearance

Capuchin monkeys are called white-faced monkeys because of their white-haired face. Aside from this distinct physical feature, they also have white upper chest and shoulders, black torso and a black cap of hair on their head. They are mainly seen on the lowland forests of the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. 

The body of an adult capuchin monkey can grow from 335 mm to 453 mm and can weight from about 3.9 kilograms.  Its tail grows longer than their body from up to 551 mm, male capuchin are larger than the females for around 27%. Capuchin monkey’s brain is much larger than other monkey species. 

Diet

They have the most flexible diet among other New World Monkey species. Aside from resting on trees, they spend the whole day swinging and traveling from tree to tree from the morning and rests at night. As they swing from tree to tree, finding and carrying food, they disperse seeds from the food they have making it a reason for the vast vegetative population in their habitat. They also eat insects from trees and the land which stimulates life balance in the rainforest ecosystem.

Behavior

Capuchin monkeys are diurnal and arboreal animals. Diurnal means that they do most of their activities; preying, eating and playing during the day then they sleep at night. Arboreal, is when they move from trees to trees in their habitat. However, capuchin monkeys also move and get down to the ground often compared to other New World Monkeys. Male capuchin migrates to different new social groups from the course of their lifetime and they are dominant to female capuchin monkeys.

Habitat

They are mainly found in Costa Rica, in many different kinds of forests; evergreen forests, dry or moist, deciduous forests, but more often in the secondary and mature forests. During the dry season, you’ll see them on the forests where there is a near and abundant water availability. 

Image credits: discovermagazine.com