Mandrill

The brightly colored face and bottom are typical of the mandrills. They are among the largest apes.

Characteristics

What do mandrills look like?

Mandrills belong to the Old World monkeys and there to the genus of the cheek-furrow baboons. Apart from the great apes, they are the largest apes. The males can grow to almost a meter tall, the females only up to 65 centimeters.

A male mandrill can weigh 28 kilograms, a female-only 11 kilograms. Arms and legs are the same lengths, so the animals can walk well on all fours. The tail is only stubby and the feet are hardly suitable for grasping. This shows that mandrills mostly live on the ground and rarely climb trees.

The most striking thing is the colorful coloring on the head and bottom: the elongated snout is hairless and its skin is colored bright blue. The tip of the nose, the bridge of the nose, and the lips are red. In addition, the snout has conspicuous bony ridges and furrows.

The fur on the face is dark brown with grey-green, yellow and white. The rest of the body is brown and the belly is white. The bottom is also hairless and bright red. The colors are most intense in the highest-ranking male, the other males have a weaker coloration, and the females only a very pale one.

Where do mandrills live?

Mandrills live in West Africa near the equator. They are very rare and only found in the countries of Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea. Its range used to extend as far as North Africa and even as far as Europe. The northern limit of distribution is the Sanaga River. From there they occur as far as the coast of Cameroon. Mandrills are rainforest dwellers, but they rarely climb because they are too big for them. Only small females and young climb trees, even on the lower tiers.

What types of mandrill are there?

There are eight species of baboons: five belong to the genus of steppe baboons, such as the yellow baboon, two to the cheek baboons. In addition to the mandrill, this is the drill. There are also blood-breasted baboons. They are all closely related.

How old do mandrills get?

Nobody knows how long mandrills live in the wild. In captivity, the animals can live up to 46 years.

Behave

How do mandrills live?

Mandrills are social animals, they live in groups of 15 to 20 animals. The core of the group is formed by the females and they’re young. Their daughters remain throughout life with mothers and aunts, and later their own cubs, in the group to which they were born. These groups are each led by the highest-ranking male – in captivity, the monkeys also recognize a human as a leader.

If it is defeated by a competitor in the ranked battles, that competitor takes the lead. The fights are fairly harmless: the males only intimidate themselves with threatening gestures and posturing. When harem members are threatened, the leading male, the so-called pasha, defends them – and fiercely. His dangerous, long canine teeth are also used here.

The groups sometimes join with other groups to form herds. This is how associations with several hundred animals are formed. After some time, the groups leave this association and move on. Males without a harem join together in groups of males when they become sexually mature. Old males often roam alone.

Mandrills are scary to humans. If you show the canines and shake your head, they look very dangerous. Africans therefore also call them “devils of the forest”. However, the gesture means a friendly greeting among mandrills. They are very shy towards humans.

Friends and foes of the mandrill

Leopards, crowned eagles, pythons, and other large snakes are the mandrill’s natural enemies. However, their greatest enemy is man: he hunts the monkey species and destroys their habitat.

How do mandrills reproduce?

When females are ready to mate, their buttocks will swell and be even redder than usual. 36 weeks after mating, a female gives birth to a single pup. The boy’s face is light at first but soon turns dark to black. The young cling to their mother’s belly and are carried around by her.

They are nursed for a little over a year and only then are weaned. The animals become sexually mature at about five years of age.

How do mandrills communicate?

The leader lets out a growl so members of his party always know where he is. Otherwise, mandrills make screeching, grunting, barking, and croaking sounds to keep in touch with each other.

Care

What do mandrills eat?

Mandrills sometimes travel up to 15 kilometers a day in search of food. They have a very varied diet and primarily eat fruit, seeds, nuts, tubers, and leaves. Often they also dig up roots, which are very nutrient-rich. But they don’t scorn meat either: they like insects, rodents, birds, lizards, frogs, turtles, and fish. If there is not enough food in the dry season between June and August, they also look for it on plantations.