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Mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) - Mysterious primate from the West African jungle
There's quite a good chance to encounter Mandrills in zoos, but in their natural habitat, the West African forests, these baboons are hardly studied and little is known about their behaviour. It's very hard to follow Mandrills through the undergrowth and moreover they are very shy and try to escape human observation immediately. A fact is, that adult, dominant males are among the most colourful mammals. Very impressive is the blue and red "warpaint" of their faces.
Only the "pasha" wears a warpaint
The colourful "mask" is only worn by dominant males heading a harem. Including young and adolescents such harem groups consist of up to 20 Mandrills. Because of his contrasting face colours the "pasha" can easily be detected by the group members even in the dense forest. If he is out of view, his voice can still be heard, because he is ringing out a typical growling sound, signalizing his position. The "pasha" is the point of reference for all group members. They are dependent on his protection; adult males wear long and sharp canine teeth and are very capable of defending the group. They measure almost one metre and weigh up to 30 kg. This means, that males are almost twice as large and three times as heavy as females. Like in many other primate species, there isn't just one form of social organization in Mandrills. Apart from the harems there are also groups, which are consisting exclusively of males. Large only-male-groups are up to 200 strong.
Mandrills stay on the ground most of the time. The light females and young sometimes climb trees, while the heavy males just use them to rest. The Mandrills' diet is quite varied. They are mainly vegetarians, feeding on fruits, leaves, seeds, nuts and roots, but also grab invertebrates, most of all insects.
"Demonic grin" - not at all meant nastily
How easy it is to be wrong, when applying human interpretations of a facial expression on animals, is shown by a typical behaviour of the Mandrills: They move the corners of their mouths to the back and open their lips at the position of their canine teeth, whereas they stay closed in the middle of the mouth. Especially when shown by adult males, this expression, which is emphasized by shaking the head, has a very scaring effect on humans. Because of this "demonic grin" the native inhabitants call the Mandrills "devils of the forest" - completely without good reason, since it's not at all a vicious gesture. Mandrills greet each other this way and their facial expression, which looks all unpleasant in our eyes, is of appeasing and completely friendly nature to other Mandrills.
"Bushmeat" - Mandrills on the plate
If the present development continues, there's the danger that Mandrills will become extinct in the wild before we had the chance to learn more about them. Their distribution range is extremely small - they inhabit a tiny area at the Bight of Biafra - and that is why they are very vulnerable to ecological changes in this region. And there are a lot of changes going on, since the Mandrills' habitat is very rich in oil and other mineral resources. As a precondition for mining and exploitation of the resources the forests are destroyed and the Mandrills and numerous other species lose their precondition to survive. But even where sufficient areas of natural habitat are left for the Mandrills, they face another, very direct threat. The opening up of the region created an infrastructure, which made shipment much easier. So it became lucrative to kill more Mandrills than ever before and transport them to the far-off hotels at the coast, where they end up on the plates of tourists.
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This article was originally published at <a href="http://magazine.naturspot.de" target="_top">magazine.naturspot.de</a>. <a href="http://magazine.naturspot.de/text/mandrill.html" target="_top">Link to the original article</a>
The animal photos are NOT part of this permission. |
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