Capuchin Monkeys Have Developed a Strange New Social Ritual

White-faced capuchins in Costa Rica developed a social ritual where one monkey puts a finger into another monkey eye socket for several minutes.

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White-faced capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica are known for unusual social traditions that can spread through a group. One of the strangest is eyeball-poking, a behavior documented as a newer tradition in the Pelon group at the Lomas Barbudal study site. During the ritual, one monkey places a finger into another monkeys eye socket, sometimes as far as the first knuckle, and the pair can remain in that position for several minutes. The monkey receiving the finger may also place fingers into the partners nose or mouth at the same time. Researchers have treated behaviors like this as social traditions when they appear in some groups, spread between members, and persist over time. The purpose of eyeball-poking is not fully settled, but research on capuchin social behavior suggests that unusual and sometimes uncomfortable rituals can play a role in testing or reinforcing social relationships. Unlike practical feeding behaviors, these social conventions can be invented, copied, and eventually disappear from a groups repertoire. The behavior is therefore interesting not simply because it looks bizarre, but because it provides another example of socially transmitted behavior in a nonhuman primate.

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