Monkeys caught on camera ‘kidnapping’ another species’ babies

Capuchin monkeys kidnap babies from another species, scientists say footage captured on a remote island shows.

Experts recorded 11 separate incidents of the baby howlers being kidnapped between 2022 and 2023 on Jicarón, a small Panamanian island, leaving scientists perplexed.

“This was very much a shocking finding,” said Zoë Goldsborough, a behavioural ecologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, who studied the strange behaviour.

“We’ve not seen anything like this in the animal kingdom.”

The monkeys’ motivations for the abduction are yet to be determined, though scientists suspect it is a “cultural fad”.