Costa Rica Picture of the Day – Each day the Costa Rican Times will be including a picture from around Costa Rica to see the natural beauty and amazing things that we get to see each day in the land of the Pura Vida.
The white-faced monkeys, or formally known as the Capuchin Monkeys occupy the wet lowland forests on Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Panama and deciduous dry forest on the Pacific coast. They also rand to parts of Nicaragua, Honduras, southern Belize, El Salvador and Northern parts of South America.
These monkeys are distinct in their appearance, in that they have a black body and white upper chest and shoulders, with a black cap on the head. The packs are led by the dominant male and travel in groups of up to fifteen strong. The females foster 1 baby every 2 years; the dominant make is usually responsible for most of the fertilization among the females. The babies cling to their mothers the first 6 months of their lives.
Other than relaxing in the canopies the monkeys spend most of their time foraging for food. Their diet consists of insects and over 50 different recorded fruit and nut species; foraging from the jungle floor all the way to the top canopy trees. The monkeys are vital to the forests because they are excellent at dispersing seeds and pruning the jungle
Article By Michael Eggleston
Photo courtesy of Thomas Gould, Costa Rica
Thomas Gould Photography, thomasgouldphotography.com
(Click on photo to see large high definition photo)
