Native to the forests of Central America, the white-faced capuchin is important to rainforest ecology for its role in dispersing seeds and pollen.

In recent years the species has become popular in American media, particularly in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.

It is mostly black, but with a pink face and white on much of the front part of the body, giving it its common name.

It has a distinctive prehensile tail that is often carried coiled up and is used to help support the monkey when it is feeding beneath a branch.

Panamanian white-faced capuchins are highly social, living in groups of 16 individuals on average, about three quarters of which are females.

In 2012 a study by Boubli, et al. demonstrated that C. imitator and C. capucinus split up to 2 million years ago.

[9][13] Adults reach a length of between 335 and 453 mm (13+1⁄4 and 17+7⁄8 in), excluding tail, and a weight of up to 3.9 kg (8 lb 10 oz).

[21][22][23] One of the unusual features of the kinship structure of the Panamanian white-faced capuchin, relative to other primate species, is the high degree of relatedness within groups that results from the long tenures of alpha males who sire most of the offspring.

[19][25] Typically, however, alpha males do not breed with their own daughters, even though they do sire virtually all offspring produced by females unrelated to them.

They do not exhibit a similar preference for their paternal half sisters, which may mean that they only are capable of recognizing kinship through the maternal line.

[26] Coalitionary aggression is common both among males and females, and capuchins seem to have an excellent understanding of the alliance structure in their group.

[21][30] Male-male relationships are tense, and affiliation between males is typically expressed by resting in contact, playing, or non-conceptive sex rather than by grooming.

[21][38][39] Females do often mate with the killers of their infants, and with time, they typically become as supportive of the new alpha male as they had been of the previous one.

Since the squirrel monkeys generally initiate interactions with the capuchins in South America, the fact that similar associations would impose higher foraging costs and impart fewer predator detection benefits to the Central American squirrel monkey leads to fewer associations with the Panamanian white-faced capuchin.

[14][45][46][47] Several non-primate animal species tend to follow troops of white-faced monkeys or are otherwise attracted by their presence.

[48] Its prehensile tail assists with feeding, helping support the monkey when foraging for food below the branches.

[8][53] The population in Guanacaste, Costa Rica in particular is noted for hunting squirrels, magpies, white-crowned parrots[8] and baby coatis.

For example, in Guanacaste, Costa Rica the Panamanian white-faced capuchin can eat a wide variety of fruits as well as caterpillars in the early rainy season (June to November).

[49] During the dry season, chitinous insects, ant and wasp larvae and vertebrates become a particularly important part of the Panamanian white-faced capuchin's diet.

The capuchins' intelligence is thought to be an adaptation to support their feeding habits; they rely on ephemeral food sources which may be hard to find.

One population of Panamanian white-faced capuchins found in Coiba National Park in Panama has been observed using hammerstones and anvils to process fruits from Terminalia catappa, Bactris major, and Cocos nucifera (coconuts) and invertebrates such as nerite snails, hermit crabs, and Halloween crabs.

Plants used in this manner include citrus fruits, vines of the genera Piper and Clematis, monkey comb (genus Sloanea), dumb cane and custard apple.

[8] It is not definitively known what this rubbing is for, but this may deter parasites such as ticks and insects, or it may serve as a fungicide or bactericide or anti-inflammatory agent.

[58] In captivity, it has been known to use tools to get to food or to defend itself, and in one case a white-faced capuchin used a squirrel monkey as a projectile, hurling it at a human observer.

[35][65] Nonetheless, there is evidence that dominant males do tend to avoid breeding with their own daughters who are members of the troop.

[41] Capuchins engage in high levels of alloparenting, in which monkeys other than the mother help care for the infant.

While the white-faced capuchin is very common in Costa Rica and Panama, the monkey has been largely extirpated from Honduras and much of Nicaragua.

In Nicaragua, wild capuchins may still be easily spotted in regions around Masaya, as well as around Bluefields and other locations around the South Caribbean coast.

[1] It is threatened by deforestation, hunting for pet trade and sometimes for bushmeat and by the fact that farmers sometimes attack them as potential threats.

[8][62] It also impacts the ecosystem by eating insects that act as pests to certain trees, by pruning certain trees, such as Gustavia superba and Bursera simaruba, causing them to generate more branches and possibly additional fruit, and by accelerating germination of certain seeds when they pass through the capuchin's digestive tract.