Editing Capuchin monkey (section)

== Behavior ==
[[File:Capuchin Monkey enjoys a massage.jpg|thumb|A capuchin monkey (left) enjoying a massage from another capuchin monkey.]]
Like most New World monkeys, capuchins are [[diurnality|diurnal]] and [[arboreal locomotion|arboreal]]. Capuchins are polygamous, and the females mate throughout the year, but only go through a gestation period once every 2 years between December and April. Females bear young every two years following a 160- to 180-day gestation.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} The young cling to their mother's chest until they are larger, then they move to her back. Adult male capuchin rarely take part in caring for the young. Juveniles become fully mature within four years for females and eight years for males. In captivity, individuals have reached an age of 50 years, although natural life expectancy is only 15 to 25 years. Capuchins live in groups of 6–40 members, consisting of related females, their offspring, and several males.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

[[File:Cebus albifrons edit.jpg|thumb|upright|left|White-fronted capuchin (''Cebus albifrons'')]]

=== Diet ===

The capuchin monkey feeds on a vast range of food types, and is more varied than other monkeys in the family [[Cebidae]]. They are [[omnivores]], and consume a variety of plant parts such as leaves, flower and fruit, seeds, pith, woody tissue, sugarcane, bulb, and exudates, as well as [[arthropods]], [[molluscs]], a variety of [[vertebrates]], and even [[primates]].<ref name="Izawa K 1979">{{cite journal | last1 = Izawa | first1 = K | year = 1979 | title = Foods and feeding behaviour of wild black-capped capuchin (''Cebus apella'') | journal = Primates | volume = 20 | pages = 57–76 | doi=10.1007/bf02373828| s2cid = 30424050 }}</ref> Recent findings of old stone tools in Capuchin habitats have suggested that recently the Capuchins have switched from small nuts, such as cashews, to larger and harder nuts. Capuchins have also been observed to be particularly good at catching frogs.<ref name="Izawa K 1979"/> They are characterized as innovative and extreme foragers because of their ability to acquire sustenance from a wide collection of unlikely food, which may assure their survival in habitats with extreme food limitation.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Fragaszy, Dorothy M. |author2=Visalberghi, Elisabetta |author3=Fedigan, Linda M. |title=The Complete Capuchin: The Biology of the Genus ''Cebus''|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A6TmtS_qOwgC&pg=PA36|date=21 June 2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-66768-5|pages=36–|chapter=Behavioral ecology: how do capuchins make a living?}}</ref> Capuchins living near water will also eat crabs and shellfish by cracking their shells with stones.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Port-Carvalhoa | first1 = M. | last2 = Ferraria | first2 = S. F. | last3 = Magalhãesc | first3 = C. | year = 2004 | title = Predation of Crabs by Tufted Capuchins (''Cebus apella'') in Eastern Amazonia | journal = Folia Primatol | volume = 75 | issue = 3| pages = 154–156 | doi=10.1159/000078305 | pmid=15240980| s2cid = 1647323 }}</ref>

=== Social structure ===

Capuchin monkeys often live in large groups of 10 to 35 individuals within the forest, although they can easily adapt to places colonized by humans. The Capuchins have discrete hierarchies that are distinguished by age and sex.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/tufted_capuchin/behav|title=Primate Factsheets: Tufted capuchin (''Cebus apella'') Behavior|website=pin.primate.wisc.edu|access-date=2019-11-12}}</ref> Usually, a single male will dominate the group, and he will have primary rights to [[Mating|mate]] with the females of the group. However, the [[white-headed capuchin]] groups are led by both an alpha male and an alpha female.<ref>{{cite book|vauthors=Ferrari SF, Iwanaga S, Ravetta AL, Freitas FC, Sousa BA, Souza LL, Costa CG, Coutinho PE |year=2003|chapter= Dynamics of Primate Communities along the Santarém-Cuiabá Highway in South-Central Brazilian Amazonia|editor=Marsh LK |title=Primates in Fragments|publisher= Kluwer|place= New York|pages=123–144|doi=10.1007/978-1-4757-3770-7_9|isbn=978-1-4757-3770-7}}</ref> Each group will cover a large territory, since members must search for the best areas to feed. These primates are territorial animals, distinctly marking a central area of their territory with urine and defending it against intruders, though outer areas may overlap. The stabilization of group dynamics is served through mutual grooming, and communication occurs between the monkeys through various calls.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1007/s00265-012-1421-5|title=Collective group movement and leadership in wild black howler monkeys (''Alouatta pigra'')|journal=Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology|volume=67|pages=31–41|year=2012|last1=Van Belle|first1=Sarie|last2=Estrada|first2=Alejandro|last3=Garber|first3=Paul A.|s2cid=14844073}}
</ref> Their vocal communications have various meanings such as creating contact with one another, warning about a predator, and forming new groups. The social experience of the capuchins directly influences the development of attention in society. They create new social behaviors within multiple groups that signify different types of interactions. These include; tests of friendship, displays against enemies, infant and sexual intimacy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170824094042.htm|title=How new behaviors appear and spread among capuchin monkeys|website=ScienceDaily|language=en|access-date=2019-11-12}}</ref> This creates social rituals that are designed to test the strength of social bonds and a reliance on social learning.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Fragaszy|first1=Dorothy M.|last2=Eshchar|first2=Yonat|last3=Visalberghi|first3=Elisabetta|last4=Resende|first4=Briseida|last5=Laity|first5=Kellie|last6=Izar|first6=Patrícia|date=2017-07-25|title=Synchronized practice helps bearded capuchin monkeys learn to extend attention while learning a tradition|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|language=en|volume=114|issue=30|pages=7798–7805|doi=10.1073/pnas.1621071114|issn=0027-8424|pmid=28739944|pmc=5544277|bibcode=2017PNAS..114.7798F |doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Mating ===

Capuchin females often direct most of their proceptive and mating behavior towards the alpha male. However, when the female reaches the end of her proceptive period, she may sometimes mate with up to six different subordinate males in one day.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Janson | first1 = C. H. | year = 1984 | title = Female choice and mating system of the brown capuchin monkey ''Cebus apella'' (Primates: Cebidae) | journal = Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie | volume = 65 | issue = 3| pages = 177–200 | doi=10.1111/j.1439-0310.1984.tb00098.x| bibcode = 1984Ethol..65..177J }}</ref> Strictly targeting the alpha male does not happen every time, as some females have been observed to mate with three to four different males.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lynch | first1 = J. W. | year = 1998 | title = Mating behavior in wild tufted capuchins (''Cebus apella nigritus'') in Brazil's Atlantic forest | journal = Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. | volume = 105 | issue = Suppl. 26 | doi = 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(1998)26+<148::AID-AJPA13>3.0.CO;2-U | page = 153 }}</ref> When an alpha female and a lower-ranking female want to mate with an alpha male, the more dominant female will get rights to the male over the lower-ranking one.