A handful of male nasturtium monkeys have been caught up in camera removing babies from another species, confusing the scientists who study them. During a period of 15 months, five male nasturtiums were seen carrying approximately 11 baby monkey monkeys different in images of trap camera captured on the island of Jicarón, an uninhabited island off the coast of Panama. The female monkeys are known to “adopt” babies from other species and train to take care of them, but the males had little interaction with the howlers, who clung to the males for several days while the Capuchins were walking and used tools. They did not care, did not play with babies or did not eat them, although ultimately the Babies howlers died because they did not have access to breast milk from their mother. The researchers do not know how or why the Capuchins went to the effort to kidnap babies in the first place because their cameras were not erased in the peaks of the trees where the howlers lived. Scientists are currently exploring the theory that the Capuchins, who have no natural predators on the island of Jicarón, were just bored and in search of entertainment, which turned out to be destructive. In this case, the Capuchin monkeys are “like a mirror” reflecting things that humans do who have no real goal, but which nevertheless harm other species, one of the researchers told CNN.
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