In July, RIESTER Foundation board member Mike Hopkins and I visited the RIESTER Reserve located near Islita, Costa Rica. One morning Mike looked up at a nearby tree and said, “Gary, there’s a monkey. No, it can’t be a monkey because it is white.” We got up to take a closer look. Mike was right the first time. It was a monkey, not a howler monkey that typically populates the Reserve, but a white-faced capuchin monkey previously unknown to the area (at least to us).

There were six or seven monkeys in the troop and they were working their way across the Reserve jumping from tree top to tree top, from limb to limb. The alpha male of the group kept an eye on Mike and me while we kept an eye on the troop.  The monkeys were as big as a large domestic cat and barked like a small dog. It was one of the most amazing animal sightings on the Reserve. We talked to Jose Sanchez, the Reserve caretaker, and he said that the monkeys had been in and around the Reserve for about one month. Jose has lived near the Reserve for decades and this was the first time he had ever seen white-faced monkeys in the area.

The white-headed capuchin is important to rainforest ecology for its role in dispersing seeds and pollen. We are assuming they are attracted to the RIESTER Reserve because of the reforestation efforts of the Foundation.

The white-headed capuchin is intelligent. It is mostly black, but with a pink face and white on much of the front part of the body. As a new world monkey it has a prehensile tail that is often carried coiled up and used to help support the monkey when it is feeding beneath a branch.

In the wild, the white-faced capuchin is versatile, living in many different types of forest, and eating many different types of food, including fruit and other plant material. It lives in troops that can exceed 20 animals and include both males and females.

Of all the animals seen on the Reserve, including Howler Monkeys, armadillos, coatis, blue morphos butterflies, parrots and mott motts, the sighting of the white-faced troop is one of the most memorable.

Gary Kaasa
President, RIESTER Foundation