Capuchin Monkeys

Capuchins skilfully crack nuts using hammer-like rocks or stones.

They fish termites or insects out of their mounds/nests with a special technique that includes stick rotation and tapping the nests.

In the Capuchin societies the females do they courting.

Capuchins and some other New World monkey species do something called “urine washing.” They wash with pee!

Scientists aren’t exactly sure why, but it may be a social cue as they have seen Capuchins urine wash to calm down aggressive friends.

Capuchins often invent new behaviours – you could also call them traditions – that spread through the group.

Capuchin monkeys are named after the Capuchin Friars – and so are Cappuccino coffees. In 1525, a Franciscan monk named Matteo da Bascio broke with his order’s tradition. He wanted to return to the ways of St. Francis and live a more austere, hermit-like life. Da Bascio helped found a group called the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, whose members are often called Capuchin monks. They wear a brown pointed hood called a cappuccino.