Capuchin

Tool use in the wild

Capuchins are among the most impressive tool users in the non-ape animal world:

• Stone hammers — use flat stones as anvils and rounded stones as hammers to crack palm nuts; this behaviour has been practised in Brazil’s Serra da Capivara for at least 700 years (documented by stone tool deposits)
• Probing tools — use sticks to dislodge insects from crevices
• Leaf cups — use folded leaves to scoop water from pools

Cultural traditions

Different capuchin troops have distinct social conventions — behaviours that are maintained by social learning rather than instinct:

• One group in Costa Rica developed the habit of inserting fingers into each other’s eye sockets and mouths during social grooming (apparently for social bonding purposes)
• Another developed a “sniff game” where individuals breathe deeply on each other
• Some troops rub millipedes on their fur (possibly insect repellent; the millipedes produce benzoquinones)

These traditions spread within troops and are lost when the individuals who maintain them die.

The organ grinder monkey

Capuchins became famous in Europe and North America as the companion of the street organ grinder — the small monkey trained to collect coins. This trade continues in some countries and is now widely condemned for animal welfare reasons; capuchins require complex social environments and suffer in isolation.

Name origin

Named by European explorers for the Franciscan Friars Minor Capuchin — whose brown habits with a pointed hood (cappuccio) resembled the monkey’s dark cap. The espresso drink “cappuccino” shares the same origin.