Panamanian white-faced capuchin

The Panamanian white-faced capuchin (Cebus imitator), also known as the Panamanian white-headed capuchin or Central American white-faced capuchin, is a medium-sized New World monkey of the family Cebidae, subfamily Cebinae. Native to the forests of Central America, the white-faced capuchin is important to rainforest ecology for its role in dispersing seeds and pollen. The Panamanian white-faced capuchin is versatile, living in many different types of forest, and eating many different types of food, including fruit, other plant material, invertebrates, and small vertebrates. It lives in troops that can exceed 20 animals and include both males and females. It is noted for its tool use, including rubbing plants over its body in an apparent use of herbal medicine, and also using tools as weapons and for getting to food. It is a long-lived monkey, with a maximum recorded age of over 54 years. The white-faced capuchin is a medium-sized monkey, weighing up to 3.9 kg (8 lb 10 oz). It is mostly black, with a pink face and white on much of the front part of the body, giving it its common name. It has a distinctive prehensile tail that is often carried coiled up and is used to help support the monkey when it is feeding beneath a branch. Panamanian white-faced capuchins are highly social, living in groups of 16 individuals on average, about three quarters of which are females. Groups consists of related females, immigrant males, and offspring. On average, females birth offspring every 27 months even though they mate throughout the year. Females tend to stay within their original group while males leave their natal group when they are four years old and change groups every four years thereafter. Both male and female capuchins exhibit different dominance behaviors within the group. In captivity, the Panamanian white-faced capuchin has been used as a companion to the organ grinder. It is an intelligent monkey and has been portrayed as a pet by American media (for example, in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series).

Taxonomy

The Panamanian white-faced capuchin is a member of the family Cebidae, the family of New World monkeys containing capuchin monkeys and squirrel monkeys. Until the 21st century, the Panamanian white-faced capuchin was considered conspecific with Cebus capucinus, the Colombian white-faced capuchin, but as a separate subspecies, C. capucinus imitator. Some primatologists continue to consider the Panamanian and Colombian white-faced capuchins as a single species. The Panamanian monkey is a member of the C. capucinus species group within the genus Cebus, which also includes the Colombian white-faced capuchin, white-fronted capuchin, the weeper capuchin and the Kaapori capuchin. This genus is also referred to as "gracile" capuchins. In 2012 a study by Boubli, et al. demonstrated that C. imitator and C. capucinus split up to 2 million years ago. Boubli's study also indicated that the Honduran white-faced capuchins, which had previously been considered a to be a possible separate subspecies, C. capucinus limitaneus, was not genetically distinct from the Panamanian white-faced capuchin. The Panamanian white-faced capuchin is among the most well-studied capuchin monkey species. Even though many previous studies were performed using the scientific name C. capucinus, as of 2014 there had been no field studies of the Colombian white-faced capuchin, so all these studies were of the Panamanian white-faced capuchin.

Physical description Like other monkeys in the genus Cebus, the Panamanian white-faced capuchin is named after the order of Capuchin friars – the cowls of these friars closely resemble the monkey's head coloration. The Panamanian white-faced capuchin has mostly black fur, with white to yellow like fur on the neck, throat, chest, shoulders, and upper arms. The face is pink or a white-cream color and may have identifying marks such as dark brows or dark fur patches. An area of black fur on the crown of the head is distinctive. It has a prehensile tail that is often held coiled, giving the white-faced capuchins the nickname "ringtail". Adults reach a length of between 335 and 453 mm (13+1⁄4 and 17+7⁄8 in), excluding tail, and a weight of up to 3.9 kg (8 lb 10 oz). The tail is longer than the body, at up to 551 mm (21+3⁄4 in) in length. Males are about 27% larger than females. The brain of a white-faced capuchin is about 79.2 g (2+13⁄16 oz), which is larger than that of several larger monkey species, such as the mantled howler. The Panamanian white-faced capuchin is similar to the Colombian white-faced capuchin in appearance, except that the female Panamanian white-faced capuchins have brownish or grayish elongated frontal tufts, which provide a contrast to the pure white cheeks and throat.

Behavior

Social structure

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