Scientists observed that a group of young people monkeys Capuchins “They load” behind them young from other species kidnapped by “boredom” on an island within an environmental reserve of the Pacific of Panamaas reported Monday the Smithsonian Institute for Tropical Research (Stri).
“At first, we thought it could be adoption. The fact that a male was the exclusive bearer of these babies was an important piece of puzzle.”said the doctoral researcher Zoë Goldsboroughof the Max Planck Institute for animal behavior.
In 2022, a group of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute observed that “immature” capuchin monkeys carried monkeys kids kidnapped kidnapped on the Jicarón Island, in the Coiba National Park, in the Pacific of Panama.
These Cariblancos capuchin monkeys were already under observation of scientists for years because they had previously been captured using stones as tools.
Thus, Goldsborough found evidence of four young from different howls that “were loaded”, almost always by the same individual, a sub-adult male of the monkeys group that uses tools and that the researchers nicknamed Joker, according to the official information.
However, five months later, the researchers discovered images and videos of more howlers being transported. It was no longer just Joker but other capuchin primates, males and young people, they also wore young people.
The researchers point out that there are other animals that adopt offspring from other species but in most cases, the adoption and care of abandoned babies are in charge of females and in this case the bearer was male.
“This has never been observed anywhere else, neither on this island nor in any other population of Capuchin monkeys. We also found no evidence that something like this happened among other species.”Said Goldsborough.
That Panamanian Pacific island inhabit the Cariblancos Capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus imitator) and the howls (Alouatta Palliata Coibansis) without problem because their diets are different, so they do not have to compete for food, according to the Stri.
The cause of this behavior is not yet “clear”, but scientists do not rule out that it can be “the social tradition or a cultural fashion” acquired by the “boredom”.
This group of kidnappers of howlers, “which is also the group that uses tools in Jicarón, are only males, suggesting that these two socially learned traditions could arise from the same source: boredom,” according to official information.
“Survival seems easy in Jicarón. There are no predators and few competitors, which gives the Capuchins a lot of time and little to do. It seems that this life ‘luxurious’ prepared the stage so that these social animals were innovative,” said MPI-AB general director Meg Cropoot.
Thus he explains that “this new tradition shows us that the need does not have to be the mother of the invention. For a very intelligent monkey who lives in a safe environment, perhaps even little stimulating, boredom and free time could be enough.”