Monkeys kidnap babies from another species in a strange « tradition » – Liberation

Young Capuchin males deceive their boredom by yielding to a strange tradition: they kidnap yawn monkeys. This is the conclusion of certain researchers in a study published Monday May 19 by The review Current Biology. For the authors of the report, this is the first example of animals capturing the little ones of another species without apparent reason.

Doctoral student Zoë Goldsborough detected the phenomenon in 2022 by studying images taken by moving detector cameras on Jicaron Island, off Panama. « I was very shocked », recalls the behavioral ecologist at the Max Planck Institute of animal behavior in Germany, seeing a white capuchin with a baby lussel monkey on his back.

Dressed in the name of Joker, – because of a scar in the mouth reminding researchers the villain in Batman -, this Kidnapper Capuchin was identified four times with a different baby monkey monkey.

To the point of initially believing in « The pretty story of a strange nasturtium that adopted these babies », Tells Zoë Goldsborough, the first author of the study. But other monkeys have started to imitate the Joker. Five Capuchins bearing eleven Babies howl monkeys over a period of fifteen months were thus identified. Scientists have also observed images of adult yellow monkeys desperately looking for their little ones by cries.

The researchers were perplexed because the kidnappers did not eat babies and did not seem to have fun with them either. These kidnappings are actually a social tradition, a kind of « fashion » Widespread in young Capuchin males on the island, according to Zoë Goldsborough. It is the first time that a study has listed the behavior of repeated kidnappings of the little ones from one species by another species, according to his co -author, Brendan Barrett.

Especially since this tradition has already cost the lives of four yoke monkeys, according to the researchers. They suspect that the others are victims of the same fate, failing to have been able to drink their mother’s milk, precise Tea New York Times. Babies were indeed transported for days and often died of dehydration or hunger.

Scientists wonder about the operating mode of kidnappers who probably act in the trees of the Coiba National Park, where the cameras are placed on the ground. « They are very clever, because they seem to be able to remove from his mother a baby one or two days old »according to Zoë Goldsborough. And without apparent damage, while a Capuchin monkey is three times less than an adult howler monkey.

The social tradition phenomenon has already been listed in animals. Brendan Barrett thus studied Capuchins at Costa Rica who had started to pour out porcly-spics, before this mode passed.

In the 1980s, orcas from the American North West Coast, used to exhibit with died salmon on their heads. A phenomenon reappeared much later, with observation a year ago orcas carrying a « Salmon hat ».

The researchers were interested in Jicaron’s Capuchins in 2017 because they know how to use stones to open nuts and shells. Without predators and with an infinite resource of food, they have a lot of free time. « These are chaos explorers » agents « laughs Brendan Barrett.

This availability may be used for the transmission of social traditions, such as the use of stones as tools, but also « Apparently arbitrary behaviors »like the flight of babies, according to the co -author of the study.

According to Zoë Goldsborough, there was at least even a baby flight after the conclusion of the study in July 2023. A phenomenon decreased since the start of observations, due to a lower proportion of howlers on the island, classified as a species in danger.