Pacific CoastNo. 09 of 12Ecuadorian Capuchin
the mischievous one
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The machín, the mischief-maker of the coastal forests
This is a true story. In the dry and humid forests of Ecuador’s Coast lives a small monkey with cinnamon fur and a pale face: the Ecuadorian capuchin, which country people call machín or mico. Beyond these forests, it is found only in a small corner of northern Peru where they continue.
It lives in families of about thirteen monkeys, with more females than males. It is curious and very clever: it eats fruit and insects, comes down to the ground when ripe fruit falls and, every now and then, sneaks into farms to taste bananas, corn and cacao. That is why some farmers know it as a mischievous crop thief.
But the machín is in danger: it has lost more than 90% of its forests and has been critically endangered since 2008. So it was great news when researchers who searched eleven forests found it in four reserves where no one had recorded it before, two of them in Manabí: Chirije and Lalo Loor. Every forest that is protected is one more home for the machín.
“Every forest that is protected is one more home for the machín.”
Told by: True story from Ecuador’s Coast
35–51 cm
long, without the tail
40–50 cm
of tail
≈ 13 monkeys
in each family
Critically endangered
since 2008
Pacific Coast
It lives in the dry and humid forests of western Ecuador, from the Coast to the Andean foothills, in areas such as Manabí and the Chongón-Colonche range. It moves through the trees and comes down to the ground when fruit falls.
Fun facts
- Country people call it machín or mico.
- It eats fruit, insects and, when it can, bananas and cacao from farms.