Tool use in Cebus: Its relation to object manipulation, the brain, and ecological adaptations

Object-use in free-ranging white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) in Costa Rica

Chimpanzees and capuchins demonstrate greater varieties and higher rates of tool-use when compared to other non-human primates. Although capuchins have been studied extensively in captivity, data on their tool-using behavior under free-ranging conditions are limited. This is the first long-term field research to systematically study complex object manipulation in capuchins. The aims of this research are 1) to examine the types, rates, and contexts of tool- and object-use in free-ranging capuchins and 2) to determine if free-ranging capuchins' object manipulation behavior is comparable to the behavior exhibited by captive individuals. Data on 3 troops of white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) were collected from February 1995 to January 1996 at Palo Verde, Costa Rica. Data were collected using focal animal and ad libitum sampling techniques. Any observed incident of tool-use and object-use was recorded. No tool-use was observed during the 11-month study. Object-use (pound, rub, and fulcrum-use) occurred at a rate of 0.19/hr and made up less than 1% of the monkeys' time (there were no differences among the age/sex classes). The results indicate that free-ranging capuchins do not exhibit the range of tool-using behavior demonstrated by their captive counterparts. This may be the result of differential motivational responses to objects, arboreal lifestyle, absence of adequate tool material, and/or absence of food resources that require extraction involving tool-use.