Overview
- The peer‑reviewed study published August 26, 2026 in PLOS One draws on more than 5,000 hours of field observation from 2006–2010 and records 446 instances of capuchins eating small vertebrates.
- Most prey were lizards (43%) and rodents (28%), and the monkeys commonly ate brains and viscera first, a pattern that points to a preference for fat‑dense, nutrient‑rich tissues.
- Hunting rose when fruit and other plant foods were scarce, linking seasonal food shortages to increased small‑prey consumption.
- Male capuchins hunted more often than females and were likelier to take dangerous prey such as snakes; the study also reports first recorded cases of these capuchins eating opossum, iguana, and bird nestlings.
- The authors argue the pattern could model an early step in hominin dietary change and call for comparative primate studies and targeted reanalysis of fossil and archaeological assemblages to test that hypothesis.