There were quite a number of primates at the zoo, including a troop of black capuchins.
From the zoo website:
De Brazza’s Monkey (Cercopithecus neglectus), locally known as swamp monkeys, and are
often found in wetlands in central Africa. De Brazzas have cheek pouches in which to carry food
while they forage. They have a life-span of up to 22 years.
Well it was a beautiful monkey anyway. Looked like it had very silky fur. Doesn’t look like it belongs in a swamp XD
De Brazza’s Monkey
Black-Capped Capuchin, (Cebus apella), also known as Tufted Capuchin, or Brown Capuchin, may live either a solitary life, or in groups of 2 - 20. A well-known characteristic of this species is that it uses stones as a tool to open hard nuts. First it lays the nut on a large, flat stone, after which it hammers with a smaller stone until the nut is opened.
Black-Capped Capuchin
Yar, see, the zoo keepers toss in soft drink bottles filled with straw/chaff in which some pellets of food are mixed in. The cap of the bottle has a little hole drilled through, wide enough for the monkey to stick its finger in. They know there’s food inside but it’s a bit of a puzzle for it to get the food out. We were watching this little guy while we were eating the sushi lunch Ada packed for us. He was just poking and poking at the hole, getting chaff all over himself XD (you can see the bits of yellow powder stuff all over his fur). He was very patient and when we left he had gotten out most of the chaff…
Of course the smart way is to unscrew the bottle top >_>
Another bunch of capuchins in another enclosure handled things differently. One of them pretty much unscrewed the lid right away, and was tapping the bottle against a rock so that the chaff/pellets came out faster (smart guy!). The other was bashing the bottle against a rock in the hope that it would break apart. It didn’t, so by some fluke he got the lid unscrewed but simply shook the bottle to get the chaff out, which isn’t as efficient…
Anyway, it was quite interesting watching the monkeys try to get food out XD
(See other National Zoo entries here.)
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