Humboldt's White-fronted capuchin
Humboldt's white-fronted capuchin (Cebus albifrons ) is a species of gracile capuchin monkey. It is found in Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, and potentially the island of Trinidad.
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DiurnalDiurnal animals are active during the daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night. The timing of activity by an animal depends ...
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OmnivoreAn omnivore is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and ani...
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FrugivoreA frugivore is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts, and seeds. Approx...
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HerbivoreA herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example, foliage, for the main component of its die...
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ArborealArboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some anima...
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Among animals, viviparity is the development of the embryo inside the body of the parent. The term 'viviparity' and its adjective form 'viviparous'...
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PolygynyPolygyny is a mating system in which one male lives and mates with multiple females but each female only mates with a single male.
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Dominance hierarchyA dominance hierarchy (formerly and colloquially called a pecking order) is a type of social hierarchy that arises when members of animal social gr...
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starts withWhite-fronted capuchins are a monkey of the New World and one of the smallest within the capuchin group. Their head is small compared to their body, their torso is slender and they have long, narrow limbs. They are a light brown color on their back and lighter underneath, often in shades of red and yellow. The fur on their back is long and soft, in contrast to the short coarser fur of their underparts. The crown of their head has a dark, round patch. Females sometimes possess a tuft of hair behind this patch. Their face is sparsely covered with pale colored hair, through which their peach-colored flesh can be seen. The color of their limbs ranges from yellows to reddy browns. The males are larger than females and the male’s tail may have a lighter tip.
White-fronted capuchins inhabit northwestern South America, including Columbia, Ecuador, Venezuela, eastern Peru, and a good part of Amazonian Brazil. They like to live in thick primary growth rainforest where traveling from tree to tree can be done easily. White-fronted capuchins also like flooded forests, forests growing between rocks, forests growing in white sand and gravel at the bottom of mesas.
These monkeys are diurnal and arboreal. Except for nap around midday, they spend the whole day foraging. They sleep in trees at night, wedged in between branches. They live in groups which have 6 to 40 members, consisting of related females and young, and several males. Mutual grooming and vocalization acts as communication and stabilization within the group. They are territorial animals, clearly marking with urine an area in the centre of their territory and actively defending it against intruders.
The capuchins are omnivores, eating fruits, birds’ eggs and small animals that they forage for at all levels in the forest. Food sources during drought can be nectar, palm nuts and figs. Capuchins that live near water also eat shellfish and crabs by cracking open their shells with stones.
These monkeys are polygynous. Groups are usually dominated by one male, with primary rights to breed with any of the females in the group. Females who are ready to mate actively respond to males seeking a mate. They don’t have a season for breeding, with mating periods being determined by location. Females bear a single young baby every 1 to 2 years, after a gestation of 150 to 160 days. Young cling tightly to their mother's chest, then after several weeks they change from a sideways over the shoulder position to riding on their mother’s back. As the baby develops, it starts to move about on its own, exploring the home range. It will nurse for a few months. At about 4 years for females, 8 for males, young become fully mature.
As White-fronted capuchins are limited to rainforest habitats, they are threatened by habitat destruction from logging and forest clearance. In some areas they are hunted for meat.
The IUCN Red List and other sources don’t provide the number of the White-fronted capuchin total population size. According to the Wikipedia resource the total population size of the Trinidad subspecies was 61 individuals at the last census. Currently White-fronted capuchins are classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List; however their numbers today are decreasing.
White-fronted capuchins assist in dispersing via their feces, the seeds of the fruits that they eat. This may transport propagules somewhere they normally would not get to, far away from the tree they fell from.
Social animals are those animals that interact highly with other animals, usually of their own species (conspecifics), to the point of having a rec...