Yes, many monkey species eat meat. At least 89 primate species have been documented consuming vertebrate flesh, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. While monkeys are primarily fruit and plant eaters, meat is a real and recurring part of the diet for several well-studied species, especially capuchins and baboons.
Which Monkeys Eat Meat Most Often
Not all monkeys are equally carnivorous. The most frequent meat eaters among monkeys are capuchins, baboons, blue monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and the small-bodied marmosets and tamarins. Chimpanzees and bonobos (which are apes, not monkeys) also eat meat regularly and are the most heavily studied primate hunters. Together, chimpanzees and baboons alone account for about 80% of all recorded meat-eating events across primates.
Leaf-eating monkeys like colobus species almost never eat meat. In fact, colobus monkeys are far more likely to be the prey than the predator. Red colobus monkeys are the single most common target of chimpanzee hunts across equatorial Africa.
What Kinds of Animals They Eat
Birds are the most commonly eaten prey type, consumed by at least 53 primate species. Reptiles come next (48 species), followed by amphibians (38 species), mammals (35 species), and fish (7 species). The specific prey varies widely depending on the monkey’s size, habitat, and opportunity.
Baboons in the mountains of South Africa, for example, hunt young antelopes more than anything else. A long-term study of chacma baboons recorded 57 vertebrate kills over about five and a half years, and 70% of those were young antelopes, primarily bushbuck fawns and red duiker juveniles. These baboons also ate francolins (a type of ground bird), rodents, skinks, rock hyraxes, and even a bushbaby. On two occasions they ate eggs, one clutch from a small bird’s nest and one likely from a rock python.
White-faced capuchins in Costa Rica show unusually high rates of vertebrate predation for a New World monkey. They catch lizards, nestling birds, squirrels, and other small animals, using quick grabs and sometimes smashing prey against branches. Marmosets and tamarins get a substantial portion of their diet from insects (roughly 39% for marmosets and 45% for tamarins), and they supplement with small vertebrates like frogs and lizards when the opportunity arises.
How Primates Hunt
Most monkeys hunt opportunistically. A baboon walking through grass stumbles across a hidden fawn and grabs it. A capuchin spots a lizard on a branch and snatches it. There’s rarely a coordinated strategy the way human hunters plan.
Chimpanzees are the notable exception. They conduct group hunts, with multiple individuals fanning out to chase and corner red colobus monkeys through the treetops. At Taï National Park in Côte d’Ivoire, chimpanzees hunt at an average rate of about 2.65 hunts per month, and they specialize heavily in colobus monkeys. In one remarkable finding, chimpanzees at a site in Senegal were observed crafting pointed sticks and using them to spear small nocturnal primates called galagos (bushbabies) hiding in tree hollows. This was the first documented case of a non-human primate making a tool specifically to hunt mammals.
Baboon hunts fall somewhere in between. When a baboon catches a young antelope, consumption follows a rough pattern: they typically eat the internal organs first, then move to the large muscles of the hindquarters. One adult male was observed deliberately discarding the intestinal tract of a rock hyrax after sniffing it, then pushing aside the stomach to access other parts of the carcass. This selective eating suggests baboons have preferences about which parts are worth consuming.
Meat as a Social Tool
Meat isn’t just food for many primates. It plays a role in social relationships. Among Guinea baboons, researchers found that meat gets shared through networks of tolerance and familiarity. An individual who has a stronger social bond with whoever holds the carcass is more likely to sit close enough to grab pieces. Meat flows along the same lines as other social behaviors: close associates get more, distant group members get less.
This pattern mirrors something seen in human hunter-gatherer societies, where the unpredictable nature of hunting (you might catch something today but not tomorrow) encourages sharing networks that smooth out the supply. In both baboons and humans, meat sharing maps onto existing social structures rather than being distributed equally. For chimpanzees, males who share meat with females gain social advantages, and meat-sharing events can reinforce alliances between males.
How Much Meat They Actually Eat
Despite the dramatic hunting episodes, meat remains a small fraction of most monkeys’ overall diets. The bulk of what any monkey eats is fruit, leaves, seeds, flowers, and insects. Chimpanzees eat meat at higher rates than any other primate, yet even for them, plant foods dominate the annual diet. Chemical analysis of chimpanzee tissues shows nitrogen levels higher than what a fruit-only diet could explain, confirming they do eat meaningful amounts of animal protein, but they are still fundamentally omnivores leaning heavily toward plants.
For most monkey species, meat eating is occasional and opportunistic. A troop of baboons might kill an antelope once every 115 hours of observation. A capuchin might catch a lizard a few times a month. Marmosets and tamarins get most of their animal protein from insects rather than vertebrates. The monkeys that never or almost never eat meat, like colobus and other leaf specialists, have digestive systems optimized for breaking down tough plant material, leaving little room or incentive for hunting.
So while the short answer is yes, monkeys do eat meat, the fuller picture is that meat eating varies enormously across species. For a handful of species it’s a regular behavior with real social significance. For most, it’s a rare opportunistic event. And for some, it simply doesn’t happen at all.