Mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx)

Mandrill overview

The mandrill is the largest of all monkeys and one of the most colorful mammals. Adult males have a bright red stripe down the nose flanked by ridged blue cheeks, a yellow-orange beard, and a rump shaded in blue, lilac and red; females and young are duller and much smaller. Mandrills live in the rainforests of west-central Africa, where they forage mostly on the ground by day and sleep in trees at night. Although they resemble baboons and were once classed with them, their nearest relatives are the drill and the mangabeys. They gather in very large groups called hordes.

How Long Do Mandrills Live?

Mandrills are thought to live about 20 years in the wild and 25–31 years in zoos, with a captive record of around 40. Wild lifespans are poorly known, because mandrills live in dense forest and are hard to follow. Leopards are their main natural predator.

How Much Does a Mandrill Weigh?

Adult mandrills weigh 10–37 kg (22–82 lb). Males weigh 19–37 kg, averaging a little over 30 kg, while females weigh just 10–15 kg. Males are therefore two to three times as heavy as females, one of the greatest sex differences in size of any primate.

How Long Is a Mandrill?

A mandrill's head and body measure 55–95 cm (22–37 in): about 55–67 cm in females and 70–95 cm in males. The stubby tail is only 5–10 cm long. Males stand roughly 55–65 cm high at the shoulder on all fours and have canine teeth up to about 4.5 cm long.

How Long Is a Mandrill Pregnant?

A mandrill is pregnant for about 175 days, or just under six months. Females give birth to one infant, usually between January and May, about every two years. The baby is born with a dark coat and pink skin and clings to its mother's belly.

What Do Mandrills Eat?

Mandrills are omnivores that prefer fruit and seeds, eating from more than a hundred plant species. They also turn over leaf litter and logs for insects, snails and other small animals, and eat leaves, bark, roots and fungi. Males mostly forage on the ground, while females and young also climb.

Diet type: omnivore. Mostly fruit and seeds, plus leaves, pith, bark, roots and mushrooms; mandrills also eat ants, termites, beetles, snails, eggs, frogs and occasionally small vertebrates such as young duikers.

Where Do Mandrills Live?

Mandrills live in tropical rainforest, gallery forest and forest-savanna mosaics in Gabon, southern Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of the Congo. They need large areas of dense forest and cover long distances, with hordes ranging over tens of square kilometers.

Are Mandrills Endangered?

The mandrill is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and its population is decreasing. Hunting for bushmeat is the main threat, because noisy hordes are easy for hunters with dogs to find, and logging roads open up once-remote forest. Gabon holds the largest remaining population.

Vulnerable

Mandrill fun facts

• The largest gathering of non-human primates ever recorded was a horde of about 1,300 mandrills in Lopé National Park, Gabon.
• A male's colors brighten as he rises in rank and his testosterone increases, and fade if he loses his position.
• A mandrill baring its teeth with its head shaking is often giving a friendly greeting, not a threat.
• Charles Darwin wrote that no other mammal is colored in so extraordinary a manner as the adult male mandrill.
• Mandrills have cheek pouches that let them stuff in extra food to carry away and eat in safety.

Mandrill FAQ

Related animals

All mammals