PREVIEW

Gone Monkey Gone! Capuchin Named 'Joker' Sparks Cruel Baby Howler Monkey Abduction Fad On Panamanian Island. A capuchin monkey named 'Joker' has sparked a bizarre and cruel fad among his kind on an island off the coast of Panama - abducting baby howler monkeys. In 2022, doctoral researcher Zoë Goldsborough was looking through the camera trap footage from Isla Jicarón when she found an unusual sighting, something they had never seen before, a capuchin monkey, who they named 'Joker' carrying an infant howler monkey on his back. “At first, we thought it could be adoption,” says Goldsborough. Anecdotes exist of some animals adopting babies of other species. Adoption, however, is almost always carried out by females, who care for infants; but males cannot do so in the same way. They assumed it was just Joker being curious - until they saw the practice had spread to five other males. The authors believe it is a cultural fad - like trends such as killer whales donning “salmon hats” or chimpanzees wearing a blade of grass in their ears like an accessory. This fad though has a sad end - as the abductors cannot provide milk for the young monkeys they have captured, several were found to have died - despite their anguished parents calling from the trees. As for the explanation behind the behaviour - the scientists put it down to simple boredom with the relatively safe life the capuchins live on Jicarón.