White-Faced Capuchin Scanning the Treetops at Jobo Bay

The white-faced capuchin (Cebus imitator) ranges throughout the dry forests of Guanacaste, including the coastal scrub around Jobo Bay near the Nicaraguan border. Troops typically number between ten and twenty animals and spend most daylight hours foraging in the canopy for fruit, insects, and small vertebrates. The species is known for using tools, including rocks and sticks, to crack open nuts and shellfish — a trait documented in only a handful of primate species outside the great apes. Guanacaste's tropical dry forest, where this monkey was ed, is one of the most endangered forest types in the Americas, with less than two percent of its original range remaining intact.