Range

South America is the native home of the brown capuchin. Here they can be found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.

Habitat

They make their home in a wide range of forest, mangroves and savanna forest habitats across the Amazon basin. Most of their time is spent in the mid-canopy and understory.

Reproduction

Brown capuchins can breed year round. They live in a group and the females will mate with the dominant male. Typically non-dominant males will take the opportunity to mate if the dominant male is distracted.

One way they may show an interest in mating is to raise and hold their eyebrows for an extended period.

Their gestation period lasts 150-160 days. At the conclusion of this one infant is normally born though on rare occasions twins can occur. At birth the average weight for an infant is 210g (7.4oz).

Females care for the young with little assistance from the male. Other females in the group will help with the care and carry the baby for a period of time.

For the first few months of its life the baby will cling to its mother body and she carries them everywhere. They will start to move on their own by 3 months old.

Weaning occurs at around 16 months old though can occur earlier in captivity. This means females typically breed only once every two years.

Females mature first at around 4 years of age with males not maturing till 7. This occurs much later than most monkeys of a similar size.

Once a male is mature it will leave the group it was born in. Females typically remain in the same group for life.

Behavior

Brown capuchins form a troop made up of 8-14 members. These groups typically contain more females than males. It is lead by a dominant male and he is the only one who mates but other males may be present.

Groups form a loose home range though often this overlaps with other groups and they appear tolerant of other groups foraging near them. They will make efforts to move rival groups out of their range though lead by the dominant male.

Different members of the group will often be observed grooming one another.

To access food they have been observed making use of tools such as using rocks to crack open nuts.

They are active by day and most of their time is spent foraging though they may take a nap break during the middle of the day. They are considered arboreal and most of their time is spent in the trees.

Individuals will scent mark themselves by urinating on their hands and rubbing these through their fur.

Brown capuchins make a range of vocalizations to communicate with other members of their troop.

Another form of communication used is facial gestures with many different types used to express different emotions.

Groups of squirrel monkeys may follow the brown capuchin who show them new food sources.

Predators and Threats

Brown capuchins face predation from a number of species including predatory birds such as the harpy eagle, cats including the jaguar, puma and jaguarundis, coyotes, tayras, snakes and crocodiles.

When a predator is spotted group members whistle to one another. This call is typically made by the dominant male to attract attention to him and protect the rest of the troop.

They are hunted for the bush meat trade and to be sold as pets. Their intelligence and playful nature have made them popular pets overseas.

While listed as least concern across their entire range some populations may be locally threatened.

Quick facts

The brown capuchin is also known as the tufted capuchin.

Brown capuchins are the monkeys which are associated with organ grinders.

Capuchin monkeys were named for their resemblance to the capuchin monkeys mainly stemming from the black cap of fur which was thought to resemble their hood and robe.