Spined capuchin

The **spined capuchin**, also known as the gold-throated capuchin, the humpback capuchin, and the cowuran capuchin, is a medium-sized monkey native to the forest of Cowura. It is well known for its high intelligence.

## Physical description

The spined capuchin has mostly bluish-grey fur, with yellow to gold fur on the neck, throat, chest, shoulders, tail, and upper arms. The face is pink and may have identifying marks such as dark brows or dark fur patches. An area of black fur on the crown of the head is distinctive. Instead of a prehensile tail, it developed strong arms to help it thrive through its forest habitat.

Adults reach a length of up to 1.1 meter (44 inch) excluding the tail, and weigh up to 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms). The tail is relatively shorter than the body, being around 553 millimeters (1.8 feet) in length. Males are about 30% larger than the females. The brain of a spined capuchin is about 101 grams (0.2 pounds), which is larger than any other monkey species in Chaoterra, such as the Lion macanx.

## Behaviour

The spined capuchin is a diurnal and arboreal animal. However, it does come down to the ground more often than many other arboreal monkeys. It moves primarily by walking on all four limbs. It lives in troops, or groups, of up to 45 monkeys and has a male/female adult ratio of 0.88 on average. With rare exceptions, females spend their entire lives with their female kin. Males migrate to new social groups multiple times during the course of their lifetimes, migrating for the first time between 22 months and 10 years of age. Males sometimes migrate alone, but more often they migrate in the company of other males who are often their kin. Alpha males are usually 21 years of age on average. Females usually produce their first offspring at around 8 years of age. Spined capuchins use a sentry capuchin to tell the troop about predators in the area, when any predators are near, it will alarm the troop by a loud scream and will quickly climb up to the trees for safe keeping.

## Diet

The spined capuchin is an omnivore. It's primary foods are fruit and insects, but will occasionally go for carrion if the aforementioned food sources are scarce. It forages at all levels of the forest, including the ground. Methods for finding food include stripping bark off of trees, searching through leaf litter, breaking dead tree branches, rolling over rocks, and using stones as anvils to crack hard fruits.
Fruit can make up between 50% and 70% or more of the capuchin's diet. Insect prey eaten include beetle larvae, butterfly and moth caterpillars, and even wasps, but will primarily feed on ants. It also eats larger prey, such as birds, eggs, frogs, small magnasaurs, and even other monkeys (though not its species).
During the dry season, nearly all of it's diet consists out of carrion, while the other parts are consisted out of insects. They are also known to get water from leafs.

## Reproduction

The spined capuchin uses a polygamous mating system in which a male may mate with multiple females. Although the dominant male does not monopolize breeding, studies have shown that the dominant male does tend to father most of the young. Although a female may mate with several males, the dominant male may be more likely to copulate when the female is at peak fertility. Nonetheless, there is evidence that dominant males do tend to avoid breeding with their own daughters who are members of the troop.
The gestation period is around 5 months and a single young is usually born, but twins occur occasionally. The infant is carried across its mother's back for about 5 weeks. After about 4 to 6 weeks it can stray from its mother for brief periods and by about 4 months it can move around independently, although some infants will be mostly independent earlier. Weaning occurs between 6 and 12 months. While the mother rests, the young spends most of its time foraging or playing, either on its own or with other juveniles.