Jicarón Island, Panama - Some male capuchin monkeys in Panama have started abducting baby monkeys of a different species and carrying them around for days, without providing care and for no discernible reason.

According to a report published in the journal Current Biology on Monday, the Panama capuchin monkeys on Jicarón Island have been observed with a series of cameras since 2017. The group is known to use stone tools to crack hard nuts and shellfish.

While reviewing video footage, Zoë Goldsborough from the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Biology in Germany noticed that a young male was carrying a small howler monkey baby.

Goldsborough combed through the year's footage and found that four howler monkey babies had been carried, most of them by a young male nicknamed Joker, who was first seen with an infant in 2022.

Dogs Dog's reaction to her meeting owner's new baby has the internet in tears!

"We came to the conclusion that it must be a single individual trying something new," said Brendan Barrett, group leader at the institute, adding this was not unusual as the monkeys are very curious.

Five months later, new images and videos showed baby howler monkeys being carried by other capuchins, which turned out to be four additional young males besides Joker.

Researchers initially considered whether the monkeys might be attempting adoption, but the males showed no signs of caregiving and did not even play with the abducted offspring.

The 15 months of footage showed at least 11 abducted howler monkey infants being carried for up to nine days. Four were later found dead and none of the others are believed to have survived.

It is unclear how the capuchin monkeys abducted the howler monkeys.

Dogs Watch as this clingy Dalmatian dog annoys his Pit Bull brother into submission

"The capuchins didn't harm the babies, but they could not provide the milk the infants needed to survive," Goldsborough said.

The scientists said the capuchins, who live in a predator-free environment, appear to be highly curious and prone to experimenting with new behaviors. Although no clear reason for the abductions was found, the researchers suggest the actions may have been driven by boredom.