Do monkeys kidnap other monkeys?

In a discovery that is equal parts fascinating and unsettling, scientists have documented behaviour in the wild that appears to show monkeys kidnapping infants not just from other species, but sometimes from within their own.

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This new evidence, gathered through meticulous field research and video recordings, is changing how primatologists understand complex social dynamics among primates.

The behaviour was most notably observed among white-faced capuchins on Jicarón Island, Panama, where researchers from the Max Planck Institute and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute set up motion-activated cameras to monitor capuchin activities. What they recorded stunned the scientific community: capuchins were abducting howler monkey infants, carrying them off and, in some cases, holding them for days.

This marked the first time such repeated cross-species infant abductions had been observed in wild primates. According to Dr. Andrew J. Vinasco, lead author of the study published in Current Biology, “There was no obvious benefit to the capuchins. The infants weren't being eaten, and they weren't used as leverage. Most tragically, the howler infants died from stress, injury, or neglect.”