Oct 12, 2020 03:55 AM
Cooperative rescue of a juvenile capuchin (Cebus imitator) from a Boa constrictor
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73476-4
Ross Pomeroy: Around 28 seconds in, you can hear the victim, a 6-year-old juvenile, start to scream as the two meter-long Boa constrictor begins its suffocating embrace. A second later, a subordinate adult male sounds the snake alarm call to rouse the rest of the group. Just four seconds afterwards, the group's alpha male charges toward the snake and starts to furiously bite and scratch it, drawing blood. Soon afterward, two older females join the alpha male in attacking the Boa while also attempting to pry the juvenile from its clutches. They succeed after a few seconds, ending the attack and scurrying away at about the 47-second mark.
While predation events like these occur frequently, they are rarely observed by scientists. According to the researchers, the swift, heroic actions of the capuchin group "clearly support the hypothesis that predation has been a strong selective force driving sociality in primates." A tight social bond can be the difference between life and death for an individual within a group. And direct kinship is not required. In this case, the group's alpha male risked his life to save the juvenile even though he was not actually related to the young monkey.
It's not until around the 1:45 mark that there's a good view of the snake, after the juvenile has escaped
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/dyi50s090UE
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73476-4
Ross Pomeroy: Around 28 seconds in, you can hear the victim, a 6-year-old juvenile, start to scream as the two meter-long Boa constrictor begins its suffocating embrace. A second later, a subordinate adult male sounds the snake alarm call to rouse the rest of the group. Just four seconds afterwards, the group's alpha male charges toward the snake and starts to furiously bite and scratch it, drawing blood. Soon afterward, two older females join the alpha male in attacking the Boa while also attempting to pry the juvenile from its clutches. They succeed after a few seconds, ending the attack and scurrying away at about the 47-second mark.
While predation events like these occur frequently, they are rarely observed by scientists. According to the researchers, the swift, heroic actions of the capuchin group "clearly support the hypothesis that predation has been a strong selective force driving sociality in primates." A tight social bond can be the difference between life and death for an individual within a group. And direct kinship is not required. In this case, the group's alpha male risked his life to save the juvenile even though he was not actually related to the young monkey.
It's not until around the 1:45 mark that there's a good view of the snake, after the juvenile has escaped