• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Using Stones And Sticks Helps Capuchin Monkeys Find Underground Food

May 15, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

In the animal world the search for food can be one of life’s biggest struggles. Whether chasing down prey, carefully setting traps, or lying in wait, the creatures of Earth have come up with a multitude of ways to get their dinner. Now, research has looked closely at bearded capuchins and found they’ve taken to using tools to get access to some tasty underground snacks. 

Advertisement

Bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) in Ubajara National Park, Brazil were observed using both their hands and stone-digging techniques for getting access to two types of food: trapdoor spiders and underground storage organs (USOs). 

Advertisement

Previous research has seen stone-digging used in a capuchin population that lives in a dry savannah habitat, whereas this population lives in a far wetter area. Male capuchins were also seen to use sticks and stones to capture spiders. These monkeys are already known to use hammerstones to crack palm nuts. 

The team followed a group of 31 monkeys for 21 months. They recorded 214 digging moments, including digging with and without the tools. The monkeys regularly extracted USOs, which are tuberous roots that are then peeled and eaten. These were excavated 49 percent of the time while spider burrows made up 19 percent of the excavations. 

In about half of the instances where the monkeys were seen to dig, they did so with stone tools. The “stone-digging” technique involved the monkeys pounding in the stone against the soil to loosen it, either helping them extract the USOs or shortening the spider burrows. The stone digging tools were used more frequently when digging on the hills compared to on riverbanks. The stone tools were also much more likely to be used by male monkeys. 



Advertisement

Stick tools were observed in only male adult and subadult male capuchins. They were used more on the riverbanks than on the hills and were seen being used 40 times. On almost half of these occasions the monkeys were seen using more than one stick. 

In total, four techniques were used to capture and consume trapdoor spiders. These included both hands only and stone-digging, as well as stick-probing. The final technique is a combination known as “stone-stick” whereby the monkeys used both stones and sticks to extract the spider, and the last tool used was always the stick. 

Trapdoor spider burrow. The

A trapdoor spider burrow. Monkeys used tools to forage for the spider and the egg mass inside.

Image courtesy of Tatiane Valença

The team found that the use of the tools did not increase the overall success of getting either a USO or a trapdoor spider. They suggest that the use of different tools could be related to the soil conditions, or could make the time looking for underground food shorter. 

The study is published in Scientific Reports.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. ARK Invest’s Wood expects market rotation back to growth stocks
  2. Tennis-Sabalenka tests positive for COVID-19, out of Indian Wells
  3. NASA Opens Lid Of Asteroid Sample Capsule, Preserved Proteins Found After Millions Of Years In Dinosaur Feather, And Much More This Week
  4. New Species May Be The Largest Snake To Have Ever Lived

Source Link: Using Stones And Sticks Helps Capuchin Monkeys Find Underground Food

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Project Hail Mary Trailer First Look: What Would Happen If The Sun Got Darker?
  • Newly Discovered Cell Structure Might Hold Key To Understanding Devastating Genetic Disorders
  • What Is Kakeya’s Needle Problem, And Why Do We Want To Solve It?
  • “I Wasn’t Prepared For The Sheer Number Of Them”: Cave Of Mummified Never-Before-Seen Eyeless Invertebrates Amazes Scientists
  • Asteroid Day At 10: How The World Is More Prepared Than Ever To Face Celestial Threats
  • What Happened When A New Zealand Man Fell Butt-First Onto A Powerful Air Hose
  • Ancient DNA Confirms Women’s Unexpected Status In One Of The Oldest Known Neolithic Settlements
  • Earth’s Weather Satellites Catch Cloud Changes… On Venus
  • Scientists Find Common Factors In People Who Have “Out-Of-Body” Experiences
  • Shocking Photos Reveal Extent Of Overfishing’s Impact On “Shrinking” Cod
  • Direct Fusion Drive Could Take Us To Sedna During Its Closest Approach In 11,000 Years
  • Earth’s Energy Imbalance Is More Than Double What It Should Be – And We Don’t Know Why
  • We May Have Misjudged A Fundamental Fact About The Cambrian Explosion
  • The Shoebill Is A Bird So Bizarre That Some People Don’t Even Believe It’s Real
  • Colossal’s “Dire Wolves” Are Now 6 Months Old – And They’ve Doubled In Size
  • How To Fake A Fossil: Find Out More In Issue 36 Of CURIOUS – Out Now
  • Is It True Earth Used To Take 420 Days To Orbit The Sun?
  • One Of The Ocean’s “Most Valuable Habitats” Grows The Only Flowers Known To Bloom In Seawater
  • World’s Largest Digital Camera Snaps 2,104 New Asteroids In 10 Hours, Mice With 2 Dads Father Their Own Offspring, And Much More This Week
  • Simplest Explanation For “Anomalous” Signals Coming From Underneath Antarctica Ruled Out
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version