White-fronted Capuchin - Physical Description

Physical Description

Male white-fronted capuchins usually weigh an average of 3.4 kg (7.5 lb) and the females an average of 2.9 kg (6.4 lb), although a male on Mirití-Paraná in Colombia weighed 5.5 kg (12 lb). This primate is usually maroon-white or palomino and creamy white. It has short fingers and an opposable thumb. Like other capuchin species its premolars are large, and it has square-shaped molar with a thick enamel to help with cracking nuts. Below are descriptions of the known subspecies for Colombia.

• Cebus albifrons albifrons is found in eastern Vichada, close to the type locality, and was defined by von Humboldt using a tame animal maintained by humans (and a pig) in the village of Maipures. The original description of von Humboldt described an ashy gray animal with a black tail tip, characteristics that are not typical of any known population of C. albifrons. The C. albifrons located three kilometers to the north of Maipures are very light colored animals with yellowish or reddish tones, very similar to the population of Arauca. Cebus a. unicolor is also very light colored with yellowish tones and it seems clear that it is a synonym of C. a. albifrons. One population of very pallid coloration is found in Arauca, the northern part of Boyacá and the eastern part of Norte de Santander and probably represents C. a. albifrons.

• Cebus a. cesarae is very light in color and quite well-defined as a subspecies. "The cap is cinnamon or snuff-brown; median dorsal region, forearm and forelag with orangeous and contrasted with sides of back and trunk; hairs of belly and chest ochracous-orange to pale ochraceous-buff and silvery; contrasting pale area of front extending over variable amounts of upper surface of shoulder and inner side of upper arm" (Hershkovitz, 1949).

• Cebus a. malitiosus is characterized by a color that is rather dark brown over almost the entire body with yellowish shoulders. "Pale area of front less extensive, upperparts and limbs paler than in hypoleucus. Cap prout's brown, median dorsal region cinnamon brown, forearm and foreleg not markedly contrasting in color with back and sides of body; hairs of belly and chest ochraceous-tawny to cinnamon-brown and silvery; contrasting pale area of front extending well over upper surface of shoulder and inner side of upper arm" (Hershkovitz, 1949).

• Cebus a. versicolor is a complex which includes dark populations and lighter populations. It is thought to include the subspecies C. a. leucocephalus and C. a. pleei. Herskovitz's description of C. a. pleei is of a very reddish animal, particularly in its limbs while C. a. versicolor is a lighter red. C. a. leucocephalus was described as a dark brown animal with reddish tonalities in the hind legs. Nevertheless, Hernández-Camacho and Cooper discuss evidence that the three subspecies (C. a. leucocephalus, C. a. pleei and C. a. versicolor) could be subsumed into one subspecies (C. a. versicolor), since the variations seem to be found in a very well-defined zone and even in the same groups, close to Barrancabermeja on the eastern bank of the middle Magdalena River in the Department of Santander. This strongly suggests that the dark phase (C. a. leucocephalus) and the light phase (C. a. pleei) are extremes of an intermediate (C. a. versicolor).

• Cebus a. cuscinus is subspecies found south of the Guamués River and colored a light brown.