Capuchins

Capuchin’s live throughout a wide range of Central America and South America, as far south as northern Argentina. These clever, agile, and powerfully built New World monkeys, who weigh about 3 to 9 pounds, are identified by fur ranging from light tan to dark brown and long, thick prehensile tails, which they use to wrap around branches. In the wild, the foot-and-a-half-tall omnivores typically travel in groups as large as about 3 dozen, foraging for everything from fruits and seeds to insects, birds, lizards, and even small mammals. This ongoing search for food is aided by the Capuchin’s rare talent for making and using tools: they use sticks to catch ants and stones to hammer open palm nuts. At night they retreat high into the forest trees, safe from the jaguars below and, with luck, the hawks and harpy eagles who stalk them from above.