Manipulation and Tool Use in captive Yellow-Breasted Capuchin Monkeys ( Cebus xanthosternos)

Abstract

In this short report we test, at an individual level, the prediction that tool use abilities and manipulative tendencies should be correlated, derived from hypotheses in the literature which connect them at a cognitive and evolutionary level. We recorded manipulative events of six captive yellow-breasted capuchin monkeys and later compared these results to their performance in a tool using task. The frequency of time each animal was involved with manipulative events was not correlated to the number of tool-using events displayed by them, even when we analyzed the males only (the most frequent manipulators). This result goes against the idea that tool use in Cebus is a product of both manipulative propensities and tendency to use objects. Most likely, the evolution of tool use in Cebus was due to a complex combination of factors, belonging to various behavioral systems, not only to the foraging one.