The extensive diversity and complexity of the white-faced capuchin’s vocal repertoire constitute a crucial factor that makes their communication stand out. Monkeys can make different vocalizations, such as calls, screams, grunts, or whistles; every type of vocalization is used in a particular social event. Vocalizations for foraging, mating, alarm signaling, and group cohesion have been identified by researchers, indicating how sophisticated and variable this capuchin communication system can be.

The extensive diversity and complexity of the white-faced capuchin’s vocal repertoire constitute a crucial factor that makes their communication stand out. Monkeys can make different vocalizations, such as calls, screams, grunts, or whistles; every type of vocalization is used in a particular social event. Vocalizations for foraging, mating, alarm signaling, and group cohesion have been identified by researchers, indicating how sophisticated and variable this capuchin communication system can be.

This is due to technological progress in bioacoustic analysis software and high-resolution audio recording devices that allow investigators to deeply analyze capuchin vocalizations to decode their acoustic structure and functional significance in a manner never seen before. With these tools, individual vocal signatures have been successfully identified, and researchers can study long-term patterns in the vocal behavior of specific monkeys and explore how vocal communication contributes to social bonding and group coordination.

Research on non-vocal communication is a relatively new field that relies on vocal signals. In recent experiments, facial expressions, body postures, and movements have also been considered potential means of capuchin monkey communication. Observations indicate that these groups have diverse expressive features, such as aggressive or submissive behaviors or friendly interactions, which have important implications for regulating social relationships between individuals in the groups and can mitigate conflicts within the group.

The findings of several experimental studies conducted under laboratory conditions have contributed significantly to a better understanding of the capuchin communication systems in terms of their cognitive abilities involving referential gestures, perceiving vocal signals as a conspecific identity marker, as well as social hierarchies and group size dynamics, have demonstrated that the field is far more complicated than it first appears. Such results have undoubtedly shown that social cognition and behavior in white-faced capuchin monkeys are closely interconnected and imply that attention should be focused on investigating cognitive aspects of animal communication.