Patrícia Izar

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Verified

Patrícia verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• Doctor
• Professor (Full) at University of São Paulo

We conducted an exploratory investigation in an area where nut-cracking by wild capuchin monkeys is common knowledge among local residents. In addition to observing male and female capuchin monkeys using stones to pound open nuts on stone "anvils," we surveyed the surrounding area and found physical evidence that monkeys cracked nuts on rock outcro...

Socioecological models assume that primates adapt their social behavior to ecological conditions, and predict that food availability and distribution, predation risk and risk of infanticide by males affect patterns of social organization, social structure and mating system of primates. However, adaptability and variation of social behavior may be c...

Theoretical models about female relationships within primate social groups hypothesise that food abundance and distribution are important factors determining the variation of patterns observed among species and populations. Despite some common premises, models formulated by van Schaik (1989) and Sterck et al. (1997) and by Isbell (1991) differ with...

The "Capuchin research community roundtable: working together towards a comparative biology of Cebus and Sapajus" was held at the International Primatological Society Congress in Cancún, Mexico, August 2012. Goals of the roundtable were to strengthen interactions among the capuchin research community, and to prioritize and coordinate research and t...

Touch has a significant impact on the development of infant primates, but it is still understudied. Little is reported, for example, about the effect of infants’ touch on their environment and social development. In this study, we sought to fill this gap by investigating the touch of capuchin monkey (Sapajus libidinosus) infants on the faces of oth...

Video recordings of nonhuman primates in their natural habitat are a common source for studying their behavior in the wild. We fine-tune pre-trained video-text foundational models for the specific domain of capuchin monkeys, with the goal of developing useful computational models to help researchers to retrieve useful clips from videos. We focus on...

Primates exhibit the richest cultural repertoire among animal taxa, spanning foraging, communication, sociality and tool use. Understanding the cultural behaviours of primates has strongly influenced the study of animal behaviour and challenged traditional views that culture is exclusive to humans. With nearly 60% of primate species endangered owin...

The evolutionary origins of caring for dead conspecifics are not completely understood. While nonhuman animals’ understanding of changes in the state of a dead conspecific is debated, some exhibit behaviors consistent with experiencing emotional distress. Among nonhuman primates, the most common behavioral patterns related to the death of a group m...

Objectives A hallmark of hominin evolution is the advent and diversification of stone tool use, and biological anthropologists have a particular interest in characterizing tool use behaviors in different hominin species. Robust capuchins, the genus Sapajus , are an excellent convergent model system for understanding tool use evolution, principally...

The evolution of hand ability in primates is staged, with the visual control of hand shaping likely originating in Platyrrhine primates, members of a monophyletic primate suborder whose stem group diverged from catarrhines about 40 million years ago. Platyrrhine hand shaping may have evolved in relation to visually mediated inhand food manipulation...

Conservation funding is currently limited; cost-effective conservation solutions are essential. We suggest that the thousands of field stations worldwide can play key roles at the frontline of biodiversity conservation and have high intrinsic value. We assessed field stations’ conservation return on investment and explored the impact of COVID-19. W...

How human and non-human primates develop their object manipulation skills has been considered an important aspect for understanding the evolution of motor and cognitive abilities in the primate order. Here, we aimed to describe the development of object manipulation from birth to 6 months in robust capuchin monkeys, platyrrhine primates well known...

Postings on social media on Twitter (now X), BioAnthropology News (Facebook), and other venues, as well as recent publications in prominent journals, show that primatologists, ecologists, and other researchers are questioning the terms "Old World" and "New World" due to their colonial implications and history. The terms are offensive if they result...

Sociability is a fundamental trait that social animals need to survive and reproduce in societies. Sociability predicts how an individual can consistently interact with its conspecifics across time and situations. By studying capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus), a neotropical primate with complex social behavior and high cognitive capacity, our...

In primates, many species exhibit same-sex sexual behaviors (SSB), defined as “genital contact or genital manipulation between same-sex individuals.” Several sociosexual functions have been proposed, including proceptivity enhancement, receptivity reduction, dominance assertion, practice for heterosexual copulation, tension regulation, reconciliati...

Capuchin monkeys have rich social relationships and from very young ages they participate in complex interactions with members of their group. Lipsmacking behaviour, which involves at least two individuals in socially-mediated interactions, may tell about processes that maintain, accentuate or attenuate emotional exchanges in monkeys. Lipsmacking i...

Every individual has an idiosyncratic way of feeling, thinking and behaving, which is relatively stable across time and situations. Usually known as Personality, today this phenomenon is recognized in many species, including arthropods, fish, avian or mammals. From an evolutionary perspective, research has shown that personality differences are man...

Keywords: affordance bearded capuchin monkey body mass development learning nut cracking perceptioneaction Sapajus libidinosus skill tool Bearded capuchin monkeys at Fazenda Boa Vista, Piauí, Brazil older than 8 years routinely crack palm nuts with a stone hammer and anvil. An embodied, perceptioneaction stance hypothesizes that mon-keys' improving...

In contrast to language acquisition by humans, in non-human primates vocal production seems independent of learning, with subtle modification related to body growth. Recently, studies showed that changes in the acoustic parameters of some primates calls are influenced by calls of conspecifics. This can be considered a simple form of vocal productio...

The platyrrhine family Cebidae (capuchin and squirrel monkeys) exhibit among the largest primate encephalization quotients. Each cebid lineage is also characterized by notable lineage-specific traits, with capuchins showing striking similarities to Hominidae such as high sensorimotor intelligence with tool use, advanced cognitive abilities, and beh...

Tool use is a fundamental feature of human evolution. Stone tools are in the archaeological record from 3.4 Ma, even before Homo,¹ and the use of stone tools probably predated the split between hominins and panins.² Using tools (hereafter, tooling cf Fragaszy and Mangalam³) is hypothesized to have improved hominins’ foraging efficiency or access to...

Complete results of statistical analysis of diet quality and stone tools in capuchins

Robust capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.) are distributed widely in the Neotropics and may be able to survive in modified landscapes because of their omnivorous, opportunistic diet. The poorly known and endangered crested capuchin monkey (Sapajus robustus) is endemic to the Atlantic Forest in Bahia, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo states, Brazil. We c...

Objectives Capuchin monkeys ( Cebus spp. and Sapajus spp.) routinely extract food resources that are embedded in protective matrices. Features such as relative brain size, manual dexterity, and — in the case of Sapajus spp .— a robust feeding system are considered adaptations for accessing embedded foods. Compared with adults, juvenile capuchins ex...

Objectives Foods that are geometrically and mechanically challenging to eat have been associated with specializations in feeding behavior and craniodental morphology across primates, and many of these foods are embedded, requiring a variety of positional behaviors during feeding. However, variation in positional behaviors in response to food proper...

Among primates, prehensile/semi-prehensile tails have evolved independently in the families Atelidae and Cebidae of the infraorder Platyrrhini (Neotropical monkeys). Prehensile/semi-prehensile tails facilitate maintenance of stability during locomotion on thin, flexible branches and while reaching for food on challenging substrates. How a prehensil...

Anthropogenic pressure has significantly increased in the last decades, often enhancing conflicts at the human–wildlife interface. Therefore, understanding peoples’ value orientations, attitudes and behavioural intentions towards wildlife is a crucial endeavour to reduce the occurrence of conflicts between humans and wildlife. Previous research in...

Among primates, prehensile/semi-prehensile tails have evolved independently in the families Atelidae and Cebidae of the infraorder Platyrrhini (Neotropical monkeys). Prehensile/semi-prehensile tails facilitate maintenance of stability during locomotion on thin, flexible branches and while reaching for food on challenging substrates. How a prehensil...

The family Cebidae (capuchin and squirrel monkeys) form a remarkable platyrrhine clade exhibiting among the largest primate encephalisation quotients. Each cebid lineage is characterised by notable lineage-specific traits, with capuchins showing striking similarities to Hominidae including high sensorimotor intelligence with tool use, advanced cogn...

Variation in group spread can affect communication between individuals, synchrony of activity and collective decision-making. Most studies have measured this variation in large time scales, but the variables that influence group spread change as the social unit ranges over different areas throughout the day. Thus, our aim was to analyze the diurnal...

Anthropogenic noise can interfere with animal behavior through masking of acoustic communication. In response to masking, animals may change their acoustic signals as an apparent adjustment strategy, but this may have a drawback on signal quality. Songs and calls may show noise-dependent changes in frequency and duration, which may yield some maski...

Birds communicate through acoustic variation in their songs for territorial defense and mate attraction. Noisy urban conditions often induce vocal changes that can alleviate masking problems, but that may also affect signal value. We investigated this potential for a functional compromise in a neotropical songbird: the bananaquit (Coereba flaveola)...

In most group-living animals, a dominance hierarchy reduces the costs of competition for limited resources. Dominance ranks may reflect prior attributes, such as body size, related to fighting ability or reflect the history of self-reinforcing effects of winning and losing a conflict (the winner-loser effect), or both. As to prior attributes, in se...

Habitats with spatial variation in food availability, predation risk, and hunting pressure allow us to study how animals resolve the trade-off between food searching and predator avoidance. We investigated the influence of food availability, predation risk, and the perceived predation risk on habitat use by a primate living under high hunting press...

Culture allows humans to adapt to a diversity of contexts. Participatory experience in technical activities and activity with artefacts provide the basis for learning traditional technical skills. Some populations of non-human animals use tools. The ways in which artefacts influence the development of a traditional skill in non-human species can pr...

Self‐directed object manipulation tasks illuminate development of motor planning. Grasping strategies that lead to good object control to perform the following action(s) reveal second‐order motor planning. Motor planning for efficient grips develops slowly in children. Age‐related differences in other primates have been poorly investigated. Here, w...

Tool use in humans can be optional, that is, the same person can use different tools or no tool to achieve a given goal. Strategies to reach the same goal may differ across individuals and cultures and at the intra-individual level. This is the first experimental study at the intra-individual level on the optional use of a tool in wild nonhuman pri...

O estudo do desenvolvimento vocal pode levar em conta tanto a produção das vocalizações, quanto o uso e compreensão delas. Há poucas evidências de que primatas não-humanos aprendem a produzir vocalizações, mas há evidências de aprendizado para o uso delas. Macacos-prego emitem uma vocalização chamada sirena, simultaneamente a um display, na situaçã...

Neste número especial do Neotropical Primates, publi- camos uma coletânea de artigos oriundos dos trabalhos apresentados no XVIII Congresso Brasileiro de Pri- matologia, realizado em Teresópolis, em novembro de 2019. O tema dessa edição do Congresso, “Educando Primatas”, foi inspirado na ideia de que uma das maio- res ameaças à biodiversidade é a f...

Once considered uniquely human, mother–infant face–to–face interactions (FF) were observed in a few captive primates. In these studies, FF were correlated to physical contact suggesting a mechanism mediating proximity between mother and infant, as is the case for humans. We investigated this hypothesis in wild capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus)...

Animal traditions are increasingly threatened by human impact on natural habitats, posing a challenge to conservation policies. In northeastern Brazil, bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) inhabiting the Cerrado–Caatinga biome of Fazenda Boa Vista use stone hammers and anvils to crack open palm nuts and other encased foods. The same species inha...

Rationale This study analyzes variability in the diets of wild bearded capuchin monkeys, Sapajus libidinosus, by analyzing stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope ratios and elemental concentrations (%C and %N) of fecal samples and food items. Developing isotopic and elemental correlates for diets of habituated subjects is a necessary step...

Wild bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus ) habitually use stone hammers to crack open palm nuts and seeds on anvils. This activity requires strength, balance, and precise movement of a large stone with respect to the item placed on an anvil. We explored how well young monkeys cope with these challenges by examining their behavior and the...

The study of personality in nonhuman primates has increased substantially, but most studies so far have been conducted with captive animals. In addition, few studies investigated the personality of Neotropical (Platyrrhini) monkeys. If we aim at investigating the ecological and social significance of personality in nonhuman primates, conducting stu...

Animal personality is defined as consistent individual differences across time and situations, but little is known about how or when those differences are established during development. Likewise, several studies described the personality structure of adult capuchin monkeys, without assessing the ontogeny of these personality traits. We analyzed th...

Once considered uniquely human, mother–infant face–to–face interactions (FF) were observed in a few captive primates. In these studies, FF were correlated to physical contact suggesting a mechanism mediating proximity between mother and infant, as is the case for humans. We investigated this hypothesis in wild capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus)...

Natural selection for positional behavior (posture and locomotion) has at least partially driven the evolution of anatomical form and function in the order Primates. Examination of bipedal behaviors associated with daily activity patterns, foraging, and terrestrial habitat use in nonhuman primates, particularly those that adopt bipedal postures and...

When aiming understand the human behavior, comparisons with nonhuman primates are especially relevant to identify homoplasies (similar characteristics that evolve independently in different species). In this paper, we present a two-year longitudinal study on the maternal behavior of capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.) under naturalistic conditions. Our...

Resumo Quando buscamos entender o comportamento humano, comparações com primatas não humanos são especialmente relevantes para identificar homoplasias (características semelhantes que evoluem independentemente em diferentes espécies). Neste artigo, apresentamos um estudo longitudinal de dois anos sobre o comportamento materno de macacos-prego (Sapa...

Objectives: Wild Sapajus libidinosus exploit underground storage organs (USOs) that require extraction and extensive processing before consumption. Since capuchin monkeys are small-sized extractive foragers that cannot perform forceful precision grips, we expected that: (a) they would use other body parts together with their hands, (b) older (and l...

Bearded capuchin monkeys crack nuts with naturally varying stone hammers, suggesting they may tune their grips and muscular forces to each stone. If so, they might use discrete actions on a stone before lifting and striking, and they would likely use these actions more frequently when the stone is larger and/or less familiar and/or when first initi...

Risk-taking researches have presented different forms of construction measurements. First, we aimed at evaluating the evidence of validity of the instruments/methods based on external criteria by contrasting the groups on their gender under the three different risk-taking measures: a domain-specific scale and two decision-making tasks in risky situ...

Wild animal navigation usually provides complex data about the ecological aspects of space usage. Developments in Geography technologies play an important role in animal ecology and behavioral studies. The significant improvement in Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and analytical power of Geographic Information System (GIS) has furthered the discus...

Extractive foraging is a skill young capuchin monkeys learn over time. A key unknown is whether unskilled individuals occupy spatial positions that increase their opportunities to learn. We observed the spatial positions of individuals in a group of capuchin monkeys in Northeastern Brazil. To improve our understanding of the relationship between le...

There is evidence that wild animals are able to recall key locations and associate them with navigational routes. Studies in primate navigation suggest most species navigate through the route network system, using intersections among routes as locations of decision-making. Recent approaches presume that points of directional change may be key locat...

Predation is considered an important selective pressure for aspects as sociality and alarm vocalization. Since there are few cases reporting predation in natural habitats any anecdotal case can help to shed light on the rule of predation risk to primates’ evolution. Here we report an episode where a group of black capuchin monkeys (Sapajus nigritus...

Snakes present a hazard to primates, both as active predators and by defensive envenomation. This risk might have been a selective pressure on the evolution of primate visual and cognitive systems, leading to several behavioral traits present in human and non-human primates, such as the ability to quickly learn to fear snakes. Primates seldom prey...

We analysed the patterns of coordination of striking movement and perceptuomotor control of stone hammers in wild bearded capuchin monkeys, Sapajus libidinosus as they cracked open palm nut using hammers of different mass, a habitual behaviour in our study population. We aimed to determine why these monkeys cannot produce conchoidally fractured fla...

Fecal steroid analysis is a powerful noninvasive tool for behavioral endocrinology, but enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) require experimental validation before they are applied. We conducted a physiological validation of an in-house EIA measuring fecal cortisol metabolites (FCMs) by performing an adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) challenge, dexamethaso...

In studies of wild primates' spatial cognition by means of natural observation, changes in navigation patterns, particularly travel speed and linearity depending on the spatial target, are usually considered as indicative of the ability of representing and locating spatial goals. However, few investigations have considered whether other factors, su...

The study on the evolution of antipredatory behaviors need to consider the risk of predation to which populations are submitted, what can be inferred by the frequency of these behaviors. In Carlos Botelho State Park, an area of Atlantic Forest, black capuchin monkeys emit a low frequency of alarm vocalizations, a pattern that may indicate an adapta...

Studies suggest the routine use of tools for Sapajus libidinosus in Caatinga/Cerrado environments, but data are scant in mangroves. In the light of the opportunity and the necessity hypotheses, this study investigated from March 2012 to March 2013, the relationship between tool use, activity budget and food availability for a group of S. libidinosu...

The present study sought to investigate whether perceived family unpredictability affects the development of life history strategies in both the reproductive and somatic domains by evaluating the ages at which life milestones occurred. In this study 211 young Brazilians answered a 10-item instrument that contained future milestones, the Family Unpr...

Most social mammal species exhibit male-biased dispersal. Sex bias in dispersal leads to a higher degree of relatedness among individuals of the philopatric sex, thus an atypical dispersal pattern might lead to deviations in the typical within-group kinship structure. Kinship, in turn, influences patterns of social interactions, as widely evident b...

Culture extends biology in that the setting of development shapes the traditions that individuals learn, and over time, traditions evolve as occasional variations are learned by others. In humans, interactions with others impact the development of cognitive processes, such as sustained attention, that shape how individuals learn as well as what the...

This study’s objective was to construct, standardize, and identify validity evidence regarding a card game in order to study risk propensity. Risk-taking outcomes were investigated using a coefficient of variation and a risk-adjusted performance measure. The hypothesis considered was that a valid instrument would successfully distinguish sex differ...

Foraging on anthropogenic food by wildlife is a prevalent form of human–wildlife interaction. Few studies have evaluated the impact of wildlife crop foraging in Neotropical areas where small-scale agriculture is practiced and the habitat has not been heavily altered. Our objectives were 1) to evaluate the perceptions of small-scale farmers living i...

We aimed to build, to standardize and to get evidence of the validity of a card game to study the risk-taking. We investigated risk-taking outcomes by a coefficient of variation and risk-adjusted performance measure. We work with the hypothesis that the valid instrument would differ with success gender differences, pointing men more likely to be ri...

This study's objective was to construct, standardize, and identify validity evidence regarding a card game in order to study risk propensity. Risk-taking outcomes were investigated using a coefficient of variation and a risk-adjusted performance measure. The hypothesis considered was that a valid instrument would successfully distinguish sex differ...

Female wild bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) living at Serra da Capivara National Park (SCNP) that use stone and stick tools during foraging occasionally toss or throw stones at the male during courtship. We report similar behaviors in a different population that uses stones as tools in foraging. We video-recorded the sexual behavior of four...

O cuidado alomaterno (interações de cuidado que não envolvem a mãe e sim por outros membros do grupo) é característico da maior parte das espécies de primatas não-humanos e muitas hipóteses foram propostas para explicar sua ocorrência e evolução ( Ross &MccLarnon, 2000). Uma das principais hipóteses é a de treino para cuidado parental, na qual espe...

According to the concept of allostasis and its association with energy mobilization, glucocorticoids (GCs) should parallel cumulative energy expenditure for animal survival and reproduction. Therefore, it is expected that seasonal food shortages might lead to increased levels of GCs. We tested this hypothesis by analyzing the intra-annual variation...

We describe seven encounters between different harpy eagle individuals (Harpia harpyja) and a group of yellow-breasted capuchin monkeys (Sapajus xanthosternos) in Una Biological Reserve. These interactions lasted 58 min on average. In each of those encounters, the capuchin monkeys used particular behavioral strategies against the harpy eagle that w...

According to the concept of allostasis and its association with energy mobilization, glucocorticoids (GCs) should parallel cumulative energy expenditure for animal survival and reproduction. Therefore, it is expected that seasonal food shortages might lead to increased levels of GCs. We tested this hypothesis by analyzing the intra-annual variation...

Recent studies showed that behavioural individual features are related to species invasion and occupation abilities. In particular, the recent literature on animal personality has pointed to a correlation between behavioural profiles and the success in different phases of the invasion. In the present study, we investigated personality traits in the...

The habitual use of tools by wild capuchin monkeys presents a unique opportunity to study the maintenance and transmission of traditions. Young capuchins spend several years interacting with nuts before cracking them efficiently with stone tools. Using a two-observer method, we quantified the magnitude of the social influences that sustain this lon...

Tool-assisted percussion is an ancient feature of human technology. Tool-assisted percussion is not uniquely human; chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, longtailed macaques, Macaca fascicularis aurea, and capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.) use stone tools to crack open encased foods. The knowledge of how these nonhuman primates use percussion tools helps us...

Cashew nuts are very nutritious but so well defended by caustic chemicals that very few species eat them. We investigated how wild bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) living at Fazenda Boa Vista (FBV; Piauí, Brazil) process cashew nuts (Anacardium spp.) to avoid the caustic chemicals contained in the seed mesocarp. We recorded the behavi...

Genotyping wild and captive capuchins has become a priority and hair bulbs have high quality DNA. Here, we describe a method to non-invasively collect fresh-plucked strands of hair that exploits capuchins’ manual dexterity and propensity to grasp and extract food. The apparatus consists of a transparent tube baited with food. Its extraction require...

Body mass is fundamental for understanding growth, health, and aspects of life history but records of body mass are rarely available for wild primates. We documented the body mass of all individuals in a group of wild bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) at annual intervals for seven consecutive years. Sexual dimorphism in body mass was m...

Objectives The diet of tufted capuchins (Sapajus) is characterized by annual or seasonal incorporation of mechanically protected foods. Reliance on these foods raises questions about the dietary strategies of young individuals that lack strength and experience to access these resources. Previous research has demonstrated differences between the fee...

Cracking nuts with tools is a behavior documented in a small number of populations of tufted capuchins, mainly in semi-arid Caatinga and Caatinga-Cerrado transitional environments of northeastern Brazil. Only one of these populations inhabits the less arid Cerrado in Central Brazil, where environments are composed of a heterogeneous mosaic of field...

The spontaneous use of stone tools for cracking nuts by tufted capuchin monkeys, now known to be habitual among wild populations in savanna environments, was first described in a semifree group living in the Tietê Ecological Park (SP, Brazil). Nut-cracking at TEP was first observed by our team in 1995 (Ottoni and Mannu in Int J Primatol 22(3):347–3...