WASHINGTON (AP) — A baby howler monkey clung to the back of an older male monkey, its tiny fingers grasping fur.
But they’re not related and not even the same species.
Scientists spotted surprising evidence of what they describe as monkey kidnappings while reviewing video footage from a small island of Panama.
The capuchin monkeys were seen carrying at least 11 howler babies between 2022 and 2023.
“This was very much a shocking finding,” said Zoë Goldsborough, a behavioral ecologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany. “We’ve not seen anything like this in the animal kingdom.”
