• Animal abduction: On Panama’s Jicarón island, biologists documented five male capuchin monkeys carrying at least eleven different infant howler monkeys—a behavior never before seen in wild primates.
• Rise and spread: The sightings were remotely recorded by over 85 camera traps, which allowed scientists to pinpoint the origin and subsequent spread of this social tradition over a 15-month period. (See interactive timeline https://www.ab.mpg.de/671374/Capuchin-tool-use/interspecies-abduction-tradition).
• Novel animal tradition: The research offers the first known documentation of a cultural tradition in which animals repeatedly abduct and carry infants of another species—without any clear benefit to themselves.

Capuchin monkeys caught abducting baby howlers

On Panama’s Jicarón island, biologists documented five male capuchin monkeys carrying at least eleven different infant howler monkeys—a behavior never before seen in wild primates.

(www.mpg.de)