Capuchin monkeys are among the most tool-proficient non-human primates, and providing opportunities for tool use and problem-solving is essential for their cognitive welfare in captivity.
Capuchin cognitive welfare requires enrichment that challenges their exceptional primate intelligence. Tool use enrichment — providing appropriate stones and nuts, or sticks and food-filled crevices — engages not just physical behavior but the problem-solving cognition that is central to capuchin behavioral ecology. Facilities that treat capuchins as display animals without cognitive challenge fail to meet welfare standards for one of the most cognitively sophisticated small primates. The investment in cognitive enrichment pays welfare dividends: engaged, cognitively stimulated capuchins show lower rates of stereotypic behavior, aggression, and behavioral pathology that otherwise require veterinary or behavioral management.