White-Faced Capuchin (Cebus capucinus) Predation on a Nestling Coati (Nasua narica)

In a recent review, Butynski (1982) considered vertebrate predation by primates to be an uncommon behavior, but not surprising "since most primates regularly search for, capture and eat invertebrates." Although the white-faced capuchin (Cebus capucinus ) is omnivorus (Freese, 1977; Hladik and Hladik, 1969; Oppenheimer, 1968), Enders (1935) considered it to be more carnivorous than the other monkeys of its region, capturing such animal prey as insects, lizards, birds' eggs and nestlings, and small vertebrates such as nesting squirrels. Hladik and Hladik (1969) and Oppenheimer (1982) determined that about 20% of the diet of white-faced capuchins in Panama consists of animal matter (primarily insects). The authors report here a case of predation by a white-faced capuchin on a nestling coati (Nasua narica ) in Santa Rosa National Park, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica.