Mandrill Baboon Facts
Mandrill Baboon Facts
Image source: "Mandrill at san francisco zoo" by ((brian)) from Sebastopol, CA, USA - mandrill
at san francisco zoo. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons -
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ile:Mandrill_at_san_francisco_zoo.jpg
2. Mandrills are very colorful. They can be identified by the blue and red skin on their faces and their bright colored bottoms (rumps).
3. The female’s face is a dull brown. The colors become brighter when the animal is excited.
4. They also have very long canine teeth (like the big teeth of a dog) that can be used for self-defense though showing them is usually a friendly smile to another mandrill.
5. These monkeys usually spend their time on the ground (terrestrial monkeys), and they move with long arms to look for food on the ground like fallen fruits, roots, and animals such as bugs, reptiles, and amphibians.
6. Their cheeks have built-in pouches that are used to store their snacks to eat later.
7. Though mandrills spend much of their time on the ground, they can climb trees and do sleep in the trees.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mandrill_at_Singapore_Zoo.jpg#/media/File:Mandrill_at_Singapore_Zoo.jpg
8. Mandrills live in troops, which are headed by a dominant male and include a dozen or more females and young. Their troops can number nearly 200.
9. Predators of the mandrill include leopards, crowned hawk-eagles, and snakes.
10. Mandrills have an opposable first digit on their hands and feet. These opposable digits aid in foraging for food throughout the day as they pick up fruits and seeds and turn over rocks and debris to find food. Mandrills walk plantigrade (flat-footed) on their back feet, but when on their front feet walk on their fingers.
11. Mandrills have unique fingerprints that can identify individual animals.
12. Although they are adapted to live on land, mandrills seek shelter in trees at night.
13. In the movie “Lion King” the character “Rafiki” is a mandrill.
14. They are one of the few Old World monkeys to scent-mark and have scent glands on their chests.
15. Fathers/dominant males (polygynous) protect members of their harem from rival males, and may wander, but return at the sign of danger.
16. Males have a red stripe down the muzzle bordered on either side by blue markings, red patches above the eyes, and a yellow mane-like beard; and multi colored (red, pink, blue, scarlet, and purple) anogenital areas; when excited, blue color on their buttocks intensifies, their chest turns blue, and red dots may appear on the wrists and ankles; pronounced male facial coloration is a primary distinction between Mandrillus sphinx and Mandrillus leucophaeus.
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