Capuchin Monkeys Abduct Baby Howler Monkeys on Panama’s Jicarón Island
A strange case of abducting baby howler monkeys by five capuchin monkeys has been reported recently in a research paper published on May 19, 2025, in Current Biology. This incident has been seen on Jicron Island, off the coast of Panama, where capuchin monkeys live. However, this is no purpose of this abduction yet, it is deadly for the smaller ones who got abducted. Capuchins have been observed doing quirky, weird, and dark things, said by Brendan Barrett, the evolutionary behavioural ecologist at the Max Planck Institute, Germany. Such behaviours can be a reflection of what we humans do, he further added.
Abduction Common Cases in Primates Showing Care
Primates have been seen abducting during the last decades, too, and it is not so rare. Macaques have been seen stealing their babies from each other. Young male capuchins snatched infants to keep at a babysitting spot. An evolutionary anthropologist at UCLA said that they also do such abductions to take care of the infants and thus snatch them from their mothers and run away for a while. However, when the infants are hungry, they come back.
Baby Howler Abduction is Still A Surprise
Barett said, when they saw a member of the capuchin group carrying a howler monkey on its back, it was really surprising. Initially, they thought the howler capuchin was a one-off pair, then they saw another picture of him carrying on the back.
Research Observation
Barett said in the research published in Current Biology that five male capuchin juveniles snatched 11 howler infants with them. Four of the babies died during the study period. Some were a day or two young when abducted. The team was not able to find out where they got the babies. Then they found footage of the lost call by a howler monkey from a tree for its baby. In the meantime, one of the capuchins threatened the howlers. This gave clarity about abduction.
Reason Still Unknown
The reason for their abduction is still know as they are not eating the dead ones. However, there can be a case that Jicarón capuchins lack predators and therefore want to kill the boredom of their island. Infant stealing might be stimulating for them, Barrett said. There is still scope to find what ese they do on the island.
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A potential new solar sail-powered satellite mission is offering an extended early warning of extreme space weather events to safely shut down the most vulnerable pieces of our tech — without waiting for them to fail mid-activity and then figuring out why. Going far beyond Earth in the traditional sense of this type of satellite, the solar sail spacecraft would provide almost 20 more minutes of warning time (up to about 60 minutes total) before some very dangerous geomagnetic storms. These eruptions, called coronal mass ejections, cause space weather events that can disrupt satellites, damage power grids, and expose astronauts to cosmic radiation through the ability to ground high-altitude commercial flights. The better the predictions, the more time for critical systems to respond, so overall it is supposed to work out.
Solar Sail Mission SWIFT Aims to Boost Space Weather Forecasting from Beyond L1 Point
According to a report published by The Conversation and contributed to Space.com, the new SWIFT (Space Weather Investigation Frontier) mission will put a satellite with a lightweight solar sail on it out at 2.1 million kilometers from Earth, which is farther than the existing L1 Lagrange point where solar wind is monitored now. That might mean a longer warning — “lead” time, in space weather speak — which would give satellite operators more time to shield their satellites, prevent astronauts from being exposed to high radiation, and allow airlines to chart the safest ways for planes.
The new solar spacecraft, Solar Cruiser, stays in orbit by a balance created from the Sun’s gravity and solar photons bounced off a reflective sail. And far larger than previous sail missions like NASA’s NanoSail-D2 and JAXA’s IKAROS. This steers the satellite post-launch.
Solar Cruiser, part of the SWIFT constellation, will measure solar wind at several vantage points for better interplanetary space weather forecasting. Enquire for more economical on-ground space weather forecasts and missions such as SWIFT that help protect our planet from imploding due to solar emissions.
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The skyscraper size of methane ice might cover around 60% of the equatorial region of Pluto, a larger area than astronomers actually estimated. This study was published on July 5, 2025 in the Journal of Geophysical Reserach. It was based on the data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft which captured close images of it around 10 years ago on July 14, 2025. Amid that flyby, the spacecraft located spires of methane ice, each is about 1000 feet tall.
Pluto’s Methane Spires Span Vast Equatorial Zone with Uncertain Pattern
As per NASA’s data they are separated to 4.4 miles in a shape which is somewhat parallel rows and form a geological feature which is called bladed terrain. The features seems to be larger and more spaced out verison of the penitentes of Earth which is a structure of water ice that creates a maximum of 9 feet. Almost the same structure was observed on Jupiter’s moon named Europa and also might be there on Mars.
Additional data collected at infrared frequencies signaled that the dwarf planet’s most of the region was methane rich, which shows that the spires are too. The results show that the bladed terrain of methane ice spires exists in a band that spans about 60% of the circumference of the planet.
Future Missions Needed to Confirm Pluto’s Mysterious Methane Landscape
This is equal to five times the width of the United States continental part, majority spotted on non-encounter hemispheres. However, it is still nort sure if the band is patchy or even. The band spans between 30 degrees south and north of the equator of Pluto.
Bladed terrain formation relies on methane’s long term cycle condensation and sublimation. These are controlled by the season of Pluto and its orbital variations. Straight evidence would be required to confirm the recent observations by the scientists. The most certain way to confirm the extension of bladed terrain into the dark side of Pluto is the future spacecraft mission.
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