White-fronted capuchin can refer to any of a number of species of gracile capuchin monkey which used to be considered as the single species Cebus albifrons. White-fronted capuchins are found in seven different countries in South America: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago. White-fronted capuchins are medium-sized monkeys with a light brown back and a creamy white underside. Like other capuchin monkeys, they are omnivorous, feeding primarily on fruits, invertebrates, other plant parts and sometimes small vertebrates. They are predated upon primarily by raptors and probably small cats, especially the margay, though snakes have been known to attack them. They are polygamous primates and live in fairly large groups of 15 to 35 individuals. Reproductive females give birth to a single young at biennial intervals. They maintain home ranges of 1.2 to 1.5 km2 (0.46 to 0.58 sq mi) and have complex vocal repertoires. They are among the few primates to have been observed crafting and utilising tools in the wild. White-fronted capuchins are common and widespread, although their population may be declining. The decline is believed to be caused by human-induced habitat loss and degradation, and hunting. In 2008 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified the Ecuadorian white-fronted capuchin (C. equatorialis) and the Trinidad white-fronted capuchin (formerly regarded as C. albifrons trinitatis) as "critically endangered," and the varied white-fronted capuchin (Cebus versicolor) in Colombia as "endangered." The total population of the Trinidad subspecies was 61 at the last census.
Taxonomy Even when the white-fronted capuchins were all considered to belong to a single species, there were problems with its name, description and type locality. The holotype does not exist; the original description by Alexander von Humboldt in 1812 describes an animal that is much darker (grayish) than those that exist close to the type locality, and the description includes a dark tail tip, a character that is completely unknown in any population of the species. Additionally, the animal which von Humboldt examined was a tame animal in Maipures, where the species is not found. The closest population is about three kilometers to the north, on the other side of the Tuparro River. Defler and Hernandez established a phenotype from the population that was called Cebus albifrons albifrons by Hernández C. and Cooper. Another problem has been that the taxon C. a. unicolor described by Spix (1823) and further defined by Hershkovitz was indistinguishable from C. a. albinos; the two are synonymous.
Taxonomic classification Hershkovitz (1949) originally named 13 subspecies, while Hernández-Camacho and Cooper (1976) described eight subspecies for Colombia. Colin Groves assessed the species in 2001, further reducing the number. One notable subspecies outside of Colombia is the critically endangered Trinidad white-fronted capuchin. The following subspecies were recognised by assessors working for the IUCN as of 2015.
Ecuadorian white-fronted capuchin, Cebus albifrons aequatorialis, found in western Ecuador and Peru (critically endangered). White-fronted capuchin, Cebus albifrons albifrons, found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. Río Cesar white-fronted capuchin, Cebus albifrons cesarae, found in Colombia. Shock-headed capuchin, Cebus albifrons cuscinus, found in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. Santa Marta white-fronted capuchin, Cebus albifrons malitiosus, found along the northern flanks of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia. Trinidad white-fronted capuchin, Cebus albifrons trinitatis, 61 individuals estimated on the island of Trinidad in 2008 (critically endangered). Varied white-fronted capuchin, Cebus albifrons versicolor, found in Colombia (endangered). The IUCN list differs from that by Groves (2005) in that Groves excluded C. a. cesarae and C. a. malitiosus but included C. a. unicolor as a subspecies. In the Handbook of the Mammals of the World (2013) Mittermeier and Rylands limit C. albifrons to gracile capuchins found in the upper Amazon basin in southern Venezuela, southern and eastern Colombia and northwest Brazil, based largely on the work of Jean Boubli, Thomas Defler and Jorge Hernández-Camacho. In particular, the following forms that had previously been considered subspecies or populations of C. albifrons have been reclassified as separate species:
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