When fruit is scarce, monkeys hunt — and start with the brain

When fruit becomes scarce, capuchin monkeys hunt small vertebrates. They eat the brain and organs of captured animals first. Before dawn, in northeastern Brazil, Noemi Spagnoletti and colleagues left camp heading for the sandstone hills where wild bearded capuchin monkeys slept. The goal was to reach them around 7 a.m. and follow them until sunset. Sometimes they saw little more than patches of fur or a tail disappearing into the foliage. The researchers rarely witnessed the moment when a monkey captured its prey. Most of the time, they spotted one that already had a lizard or frog in its hand and was starting to eat it from the head.