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Capuchin Monkey Both the white fronted capuchin monkey and the brown capuchin monkey live in the rainforest of Peru. The only significant difference between the two are the color of their bodies. While the white fronted capuchin has a dark cap, light colored body and white chest, the brown capuchin is what its name says: all brown with darker legs and feet. The capuchins occur in large and noisy troops, swinging from tree to tree, one after another. A troop, 2 to 30 strong, consists of a single adult male plus females and their young, traveling an average of over 1 mile per day, aggressively defending turf when they meet other troops. They are highly arboreal, meaning they live mostly in the trees of the upper canopy. Still, however, they make themselves known all over the forest, foraging for food from the tops of the trees to the lower tree trunks and sometimes even to the ground. Their diet consists not just of fruit and insects, but also bird eggs, young birds, baby squirrels, and small lizards. They have even been known to attack animals larger than themselves, like the six foot long iguana. On average capuchins consume 20% meat, 65% fruit, and 15% green plant. Sounds like a pretty balanced diet to me!
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Capuchins have a medium sized body for a monkey, and can grow to be about 1.5 feet long and five pounds. They have a long prehensile tail, about the same length of their body. They are highly active animals, spending about 80% of the daylight hours moving through the forest, foraging, debarking trees, and rolling over sticks and logs. Capuchins are very playful and mischievous animals indeed. |
