Essay On Mandrills

The mandrill is a primate of the Old World monkey family.

They are related to baboons and even more so to drills.

Mandrills are the largest of all monkeys.

Female have a body length between 55 and 67 centimeters (21 and 26 inches); males have a body length between 75
and 95 centimeters (29 and 37 inches); tail length add another 5 to 10 centimeters (2 to 4 inches) , with males having longer tails.

Female weigh between 11 and 13 kilograms (24 and 28 pounds); males weigh between 18 and 33 kilograms (40 and 73 pounds).

Average life span in the wild is 20 years; the longest recorded lifespan for a captive mandrill is 46 years.

They are shy and reclusive primates that live only in the rain forests of equatorial Africa.

It is found in southern

Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo.

Mandrills are extremely colorful, perhaps more so than any other mammal.

They are easily identifiable by the blue and red skin on their faces and their brightly hued rumps. These distinctive
colors become brighter when the animal is excited.

An adult male mandrill that has the brightest and most distinctive colors on his face seems to be most attractive
to females.

They have long arms and can travel long distances on the ground. They do climb trees, though, and even sleep there,
selecting a different tree each evening.

Mandrills have a special way of carrying these foods. They have large cheek pouches inside their mouths that they
can stuff full of food to eat at a later time.

Mandrills are omnivorous animals and therefore eat almost anything. The mandrill primarily feeds on fruits, berries,
seeds, nuts, roots, leaves, insects and even small mammals and reptiles.

They have extremely long canine teeth which can be over 2 inches (5 centimeters) long and can be used for self-defense—though
baring them is typically a friendly gesture among mandrills.

Mandrills live in small social units but often join up with other small groups to form larger ones called hordes.
One of the largest groups documented numbered over 1,2000 mandrills!

Mandrill hordes are noisy. The animals communicate with deep grunts and high-pitched screams while they forage and travel.

Like all monkeys, mandrills communicate through scent marks, vocalizations, and body

language.

Charles Darwin wrote in The Descent of Man that "no other member in the whole class of mammals is coloured in so
extraordinary a manner as the adult male mandrill's".