The Capuchin monkeys of Tortuguero Costa Rica

I wrote a little about the white-faced Capuchin monkeys that we found in the Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica earlier in November in this article about the trip. When I was processing the rest of my photos, I found quite a number of good images of these cute monkeys that I thought shouldn’t be lost forever on my hard drive and so I decided to write a short article about them.

We had been staying at the Evergreen Lodge which is on the edge of the National Park and after a wet morning on a boat tour, the rain finally stopped in the early afternoon, and I decided to go monkey spotting. The resort is large with concrete paths above the level of the water-soaked ground linking all the resort rooms with some paths heading deep into the jungle, so I felt sure I would spot something.

But 90 minutes later, I had walked every path with no sign of these monkeys. I had seen them in the bushes around the restaurant the night before, but they were nowhere this afternoon. It was getting close to sunset and the light conditions under these massive trees were getting worse, when I spotted one monkey by the river, working on getting the contents from a drinking bottle it had found.

After banging it on rocks without much success, he abandoned it and started to make his way towards the restaurant again and I tracked him a little before he climbed up on a roof and out of sight.

And then, I happened to look back towards the river and a fallen tree connecting a small offshore island with the mainland and saw the start of the action as more monkeys came from that island. The first group was a male with a small baby on his back facing off against a smaller monkey.

The mother appeared then from the trees, and the baby immediately changed partners and starting to take a drink of milk. I doubt if the father was actually going to pat the baby’s head, but it certainly looked like it. A lovely family portrait!

But no – the intruder is back, this time from behind the mother as the father seems to be having a quiet smoke.

The father is alert and starts the search for the intruder. I guess we could all shout “he’s behind you!”

I’m not sure what happened next, but the mother and baby seem unbothered by the encounter.

And finally, they seemed to evaporate into the trees – perhaps they had heard the preparations for dinner and I followed one of the group as it made its way further into the resort.

He was off into the branches planning the next leap.

Time for me to depart as well – I am sure there was some rain planned for us soon!