Striking creature from Central Africa: baby mandrill monkey born in Moscow Zoo

A baby of rare mandrill monkeys came to the world in the Moscow Zoo. Mandrills, large monkeys of Central African origin, have striking coloring. They have red noses with light- or deep blue-colored cartilage ridges lining them. The species is on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable.

“The other name for mandrill monkeys is sphinx. Sphinxes are zoomorphic mythical creatures. In Ancient Egypt, for example, they were depicted as animals with lions’ bodies and human heads (more rarely with heads of falcons or rams). Mandrills’ constitution reminds of baboons, while their heads look like dog’s heads. The species are often called “ribbernosed” or “dog-faced” baboons. The wild population of those amazing animals declines steadily every year. That’s why zoos all over the world work on establishing a reserve population of the rare simians. Mandrills adapt well to captivity and are friendly toward humans. Moscow Zoo collection has 12 mandrills: 2 males and 10 females. Recently, the family had a new addition. You can watch it in the Primates’ House pavilion,” said Svetlana Akulova, Director General of the Moscow Zoo.

The baby monkey was born in the night. Zookeepers found it when doing their daily morning rounds. It was clinging to its mother, watching the other group members closely. That was the second time that female gave birth. She’s a caring mother and (also important) is well-respected by her mates. As it happens, mandrills’ groups have strict hierarchy. An alpha female can take the young from lower-ranked females and start caring for them herself. Nothing like that will happen to the mother of our newborn monkey. Other group members just come by to watch the new baby.

It spends most of its time on its mother’s back. They move around the enclosure together. So as not to cause the mandrills undue stress, veterinarians will check the baby monkey’s sex and weight later, after it gets stronger and stops following its mother everywhere. According to preliminary estimates, the new addition to the group is in perfect health.

Right now, its only food is its mother’s milk. The adult mandrills in the Moscow Zoo eat fruits (apples, pears, bananas, oranges, persimmons, kiwis), vegetables (various sorts of onions and cabbages, daikon, radish, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery and lettuce), chicken meat, quail eggs, insects (Madagascar roaches and crickets), tree branches and combined feed.

In the wild, mandrills live in Central Africa: Cameroon, Gabon and Congo. They inhabit tropical rainforests and sometimes rocky areas. In the past, they used to be considered a subgenus of baboons, but after a lot of studies, researchers set them apart as a separate genus. There are only two species in it: mandrills and drills (look similar to their brethren, but their muzzle coloring is more subdued).

Their numbers in the wild are not exactly known, but rough estimates say they declined 40 per cent in the last 30 years. National parks in Africa help preserve the population, banning hunting and isolating the monkeys from contact with people.

Mandrills do look striking. They are relatively large: males can grow up to 80 cm tall and weight about 30 kilograms; females are smaller: about 60 centimeters and 15 kilograms, respectively. Their coloring is one of the brightest among primates and mammals in general. Light- or deep-blue cartilage ridges line their bright-red noses. Males have white, yellowish or orange manes around their heads. Their bodies are covered with thick fur, muddy or dark-brown in color. The skin on their buttocks can be anywhere from red-blue, to blue, to even purple. They have no fur there, so the color is clearly visible. Females’ coloring is less flamboyant than males’.

Thanks to their appearance, mandrills have often featured in various cartoons. For example, Rafiki, the mysterious shaman from the legendary Lion King, is a mandrill. He gives sage advice and battles an entire hyena pack.

Mandrills really can be quite dangerous. They are very territorial and don’t take kindly to trespassers. Their fangs, as long as a human finger, are fearsome weapons. Leopards are the only predators brave enough to attack mandrills. Even they prefer to prey on lone monkeys or stragglers who’ve lost their group.

In captivity, mandrills can live for 30 years; their lifespans in the wild are significantly shorter.

This season, a baby prehensile-tailed skink welcomed the world at the Moscow Zoo for the first time in 30 years. Those lizards are endemic to the Solomon Islands, i.e. they can be found in the wild only on that Pacific archipelago. They are on the IUCN Red List. You can admire them by watching a short video on mos.ru.