Essay On Capuchins

With a variety of new world monkeys, the capuchin monkeys have their own characteristics that differentiate them from others. The capuchins are apart of the superfamily of Ceboidea and from there branch out into the family Cebidae. They are mainly distributed in tropical and subtropical regions in Central and South America(). In these tropical areas the habitats that capuchins can be found in range from deep rainforest to dry forest with a height elevation from sea level to 2700 meters high(). Capuchin are omnivorous and their diet consist mainly of fruits, insects, nuts, and seed. In size,animals in the Cebidae family are normally small, like the capuchins who can have a mass from 1.1 to 3.3 kg and a length of 32 to 56 cm(). Normally the male capuchin monkeys are bigger than the females and also have distinct differences in the proportions of the head compared to the body. However in the Cebidae family, the capuchin monkeys are the only ones with a grasping tail which is mainly used to help keep balance and hardly ever use it to grab object(). They are indeed arboreal and do arm swing on trees. Capuchins also have opposable thumbs. The color of their fur can range from white to brown to black. Capuchins have
groups that can contain from eight to thirty animals in them. In the groups they are highly territorial with a head male that protects the group from threats().

Tool Use Among Wild Capuchins
Capuchins are very intelligent animals and in the wild they use many different tools to get the resources they need. One of these tools is stone pounding which capuchin monkeys use on palm nuts almost like a hammer. When selecting stones to use on palm nuts the wild capuchin monkeys have to pick stones that are heavy and strong so they can break through the shell of the palm nuts. When testing the stone if it is light like quartzite stone weighing 150-200 grams or the weathered sandstone which is breakable it is apparent it wouldn't work to break the palm nut(). Capuchin monkeys have to find stones, but in the wild most stones appear to be the same size but have different masses. The capuchin monkey will go up to the stones and sometimes by just touching the stones they can tell if it is heavy or light. They will then lift the heavier stone to see if it is the right weight and leave the lighter ones behind. After testing and collecting the stone then they take them over to a solid site like an anvil shaped log where they stand on their two hind legs and smash the stone on to the palm nut until it is broken open(). Another tool that wild capuchin monkeys use are sticks. The sticks are used as a probing tool at times to examine and see what they are approaching. The capuchin monkey also uses the stick as a tool to gather up or retrieve food that is far away. There are also tool sets in which sticks can play a role. One tool set is after stone tools are used to crack open nuts, fruits, or insects then the capuchin monkey can use a stick to disconnect and pull out inner meat or parts of a food(). A third tool that capuchin monkeys use is crushed millepede. The environments that they live in have a large amount of mosquitos. Those mosquitoes carry parasites that are weakening and dangerous to capuchin monkeys. The parasites that the mosquitoes bring and spread to the capuchin monkeys causes them to get magots. They look for the certain millipede in tree branches and mounds. The millipede carries opposing chemicals, such as benzoquinones, that are known to keep mosquitoes away(). Due to this, they figured out that rubbing millipede onto their fur acts as a repellent for mosquitoes which shows the capuchin monkeys intelligence also.
Captive Capuchins Capuchin monkeys that live in a captive environment are given different tasks and challenges to do to keep them occupied and gives them daily healthy physical activity. One task that is provided to the captive capuchin monkeys is putting peanut butter and honey in a box or pipe and letting them get it out(). They use a box that has holes in it or a PVC pipe that has segments cut out of it(). The capuchin monkeys are supplied with a straw or a stick to get the food out. When the capuchin is new to the task, it might take them a while to determine or work out their approach to solving the problem(). The zookeepers would give little hints to assist them so they can learn faster. Another challenge that is also a research conducted on capuchin monkeys is giving them colored chips or tokens that stand for different foods or different tools like stones that the capuchins need to be able to get their food out. The capuchin monkeys learn which color chip stands for the specific items they need. For example a white chip would stand for food like grapes while a red one would mean no grapes().It takes them some time and practice to learn about the color coded chips. The results showed that in the first trial of this challenge the capuchin monkey only got forty-four percent of the selected chips right(). After that they gave them more chances to pick the colored chips and the percent correct kept increasing until it got to one-hundred percent correct(). This shows that capuchin monkeys are intelligent and fast learners. A third challenge that is given to captive capuchin monkeys is the trap-tube task. In this task the capuchin monkey is given a stick and has a tube with a reward placed in it. The tube has holes in it that lead to different outcomes. The capuchin monkey has to learn which strategy is the right one to go with. When placing the stick in to get the reward out, when the capuchin pushes the object inside, it will either come out or go into a trap on the other side(). After being given the task over and over again the percentage of times they got the reward out increased to ninety-five percent(). This activity helps the capuchin monkey learn about cause and effect relationship based on their action and the outcome of that action.
Comparison and Contrast of Wild and Captive Capuchin Although wild and captive capuchin monkeys have different environments with different lifestyles there are also similarities.
One difference between wild and captive capuchins is that captive capuchins don’t have to worry about mosquitoes or catching any disease from them. This is because the environment that captive capuchins live in is protected and not dangerous because there are zookeepers to keep everything safe while in the wild the capuchins can’t rely on any person. In the wild, the capuchins live in a dangerous environment in which they must adapt and learn new strategies to survive. Another difference that captive and wild capuchins have is there social group. In a captive environment the capuchin monkeys can't form their own social
groups.
Captive capuchins are only with other captive capuchins, in small groups, that are either for company, observations, and for mating. While in the wild, the social groups can be from three to thirty members(). These groups contain male capuchins, females, juveniles, and infants(). In this group there is one head male and female which can’t really be established in a captive environment(). A third difference is that on captive capuchins there are experiments that researchers do on them which can't be done in the wild. Some of the experiments are also tasks that are presented to them like the previously mentioned colored token experiment and the trap-tube task.
There is also a difference in how tools are gathered between the wild and captive capuchin monkeys. This is mainly due to the fact that captive capuchins are caged and not in an actual which prohibits them from finding the tools on their own. Instead they are provided with the tools they will need while in the wild the capuchin monkey must find the right tool to use on their own. While there are many differences, the wild and captive capuchin monkeys also have several similarities. A similarity in tool use is the tools that they choose to use. Although the collecting of the tools might be different, both the wild and captive capuchins do use similar tools such as stones to crack open food like nuts and fruit and sticks. Sticks are used in the same way. In the wild, like formerly explained, sticks are used to reach items that are far away or hard to get too comparable to the task that is given to captive capuchins in which they also use the stick to reach the food that are put into the box or tube. Another similarity is the wild and captive capuchins intelligience.