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The '''mandrill''' (''Mandrillus sphinx'') is a [[primate]] of the [[Old World monkey]] (Cercopithecidae) family,<ref name=Nowak1999>{{citation |year=1999 |author=Nowak, Ronald M |title=Primates of the World |pages=151–152 |place=Baltimore, Maryland |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=0-8018-6251-5 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=unODoWa7CM4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Walker's+Primates+%22#v=onepage&q&f=false |accessdate=7 September 2010}}</ref> closely related to the [[baboon]]s and even more closely to the [[Drill (mammal)|drill]]. It is found in southern [[Cameroon]], [[Gabon]], [[Equatorial Guinea]], and [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo]]. Mandrills mostly live in [[tropical rainforest]]s and [[forest-savanna mosaic]]s. They live in groups called [[List of animal names|hordes]]. Mandrills have an omnivorous diet consisting mostly of fruits and insects. Their mating season takes place from June to October.
MACT AND MEL Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=0-8018-6251-5 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=unODoWa7CM4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Walker's+Primates+%22#v=onepage&q&f=false |accessdate=7 September 2010}}</ref> closely related to the [[baboon]]s and even more closely to the [[Drill (mammal)|drill]]. It is found in southern [[Cameroon]], [[Gabon]], [[Equatorial Guinea]], and [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo]]. Mandrills mostly live in [[tropical rainforest]]s and [[forest-savanna mosaic]]s. They live in groups called [[List of animal names|hordes]]. Mandrills have an omnivorous diet consisting mostly of fruits and insects. Their mating season takes place from June to October.


Both the mandrill and the drill were once classified as baboons in genus ''[[Baboon|Papio]]'', but recent research has determined they should be separated into their own [[genus]], ''[[Mandrillus]]''.<ref name=Nowak1999/> The mandrill is the world's largest species of monkey. [[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 mandrills."<ref>{{cite book|last=Darwin|first=Charles|title=The Descent of Man, and selection in relation to sex.|year=1871|publisher=D. Appleton and Co, New York}}</ref> The mandrill is classified as [[Vulnerable species|vulnerable]] by [[IUCN]].
Both the mandrill and the drill were once classified as baboons in genus ''[[Baboon|Papio]]'', but recent research has determined they should be separated into their own [[genus]], ''[[Mandrillus]]''.<ref name=Nowak1999/> The mandrill is the world's largest species of monkey. [[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 mandrills."<ref>{{cite book|last=Darwin|first=Charles|title=The Descent of Man, and selection in relation to sex.|year=1871|publisher=D. Appleton and Co, New York}}</ref> The mandrill is classified as [[Vulnerable species|vulnerable]] by [[IUCN]].

Revision as of 15:12, 6 March 2012

This article is about the primate. For other uses, see Mandrill (disambiguation).

Mandrill[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Primates
Family:
Cercopithecidae
Genus:
Mandrillus
Species:
M. sphinx
Binomial name
Mandrillus sphinx
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Mandrill range

MACT AND MEL Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=0-8018-6251-5 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=unODoWa7CM4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Walker's+Primates+%22#v=onepage&q&f=false |accessdate=7 September 2010}}</ref> closely related to the baboons and even more closely to the drill. It is found in southern Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo. Mandrills mostly live in tropical rainforests and forest-savanna mosaics. They live in groups called hordes. Mandrills have an omnivorous diet consisting mostly of fruits and insects. Their mating season takes place from June to October.

Both the mandrill and the drill were once classified as baboons in genus Papio, but recent research has determined they should be separated into their own genus, Mandrillus.[3] The mandrill is the world's largest species of monkey. 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 mandrills."[4] The mandrill is classified as vulnerable by IUCN.

Description

A mandrill displays his exotic coloring.
The Mandrill's exotic coloring

The mandrill is perhaps the most colorful primate. It has an olive green or dark grey pelage with yellow and black bands and a white belly. Its hairless face has an elongated muzzle with distinctive characteristics such as a red stripe down the middle and protruding blue ridges on the sides. It also has red nostrils and lips, a yellow beard and white tuffs. The areas around the genitals and the anus are multi-colored, being colored red, pink, blue, scarlet, and purple.[5] They also have pale pink ischial callosities.[5] The coloration of the animal is more pronounced in dominant adult males. Both sexes have a patch of skin, surrounded by bristly hairs, on their chests that are used in olfactory communication. These, too, are more pronounced in dominant adult males.[6] Males also have longer canines than females, with an average of 4.5 cm (1.8 in) and 1.0 cm, respectively.[7]

Males average 25–35 kg (55-77 lb); females are less than half that weight (11–14 kg, or 25-30 lb). Unusually large males can weigh 50 kg (110 lb).[8][9] The average male is 81–90 cm (32–36 in) and the female is 56–66 cm (22–26 in), with the tail adding another 5–8 cm (2–3 in).[10][11] They can survive up to 31 years in captivity. Females reach sexual maturity at about 3.5 years. The mandrill has one of the greatest sexual dimorphisms among the primates.[12]

Ecology and activities

Mandrill with a flower

The mandrill is found in southern Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo. Its distribution is bounded by the Sanaga River to the north and the Ogooué and White Rivers to the east. Recent research suggests mandrill populations north and south of the Ogooué river are so genetically different as to be separate subspecies. Mandrills prefer to live in tropical rainforests and forest-savanna mosaics. They also live in gallery forests with savanna areas, riparian forests, rocky forests, agricultural areas and inundated forests and stream beds.[13][14] Mandrills will cross grass areas within their forest habitats.[15][16]

The mandrill has an omnivorous diet. It mostly consumes plant matter from over a hundred species of plant. It mostly eats fruit, but will also eat leaves, lianas, bark, stems, and fibers. It also consumes mushrooms and soil.[14] With animals, mandrills mostly eat invertebrates, particularly ants, beetles, termites, crickets, spiders, snails, and scorpions. It will also eat eggs, and occasionally vertebrates such as birds, tortoises, frogs, porcupines, rats, and shrews.[14] Mandrills likely will eat larger vertebrates, such as juvenile bay duikers and small antelope.[17] One study found the Mandrill's diet was composed of fruit (50.7%), seeds (26.0%), leaves (8.2%), pith (6.8%), flowers (2.7%), and animal foods (4.1%), with other foods making up the remaining (1.4%).[18] Mandrills are in turn preyed on by leopards, crowned eagles and certain snake species.[15]

While mandrills are mostly terrestrial, they are more arboreal than baboons, and have been found in all forest levels.[5][7] When on the ground, mandrills walk by digitigrade quadrupedalism. When in the trees, they move by lateral jumps.[13] Mandrills are mostly diurnal, with activities starting in the morning and continuing into the evening.[19] At night, they sleep in trees, at a different site each night.[14] In the wild and in captivity, mandrills have been observed using sticks to clean themselves.[20]

Social behavior and reproduction

Mandrills seem to live in large, stable groups called "hordes". Hordes often number in the hundreds, possibly averaging around 620 individuals and reaching as many as 845.[13][15][16] It is difficult to accurately estimate group size in the forest, but filming a group crossing a gap between two forest patches or crossing a road is a reliable way of estimating group size. The largest group verifiably observed in this way contained over 1300 individuals, in Lopé National Park, Gabon—the largest aggregation of nonhuman primates ever recorded.[21] Year-round residents of these groups are adult females and their dependent offspring.[22] Males live a solitary lifestyle, and only enter hordes during female seasonal sexual cycling, which last three months each year.[15][22] In addition to hordes and solitary males, smaller groups of 50 individuals have been recorded though rarely; an all-male bachelor group has never been recorded.[15][22]

Sleeping mother with young

The mating season of the mandrill takes place from June to October, which is when sexual swellings occur.[22] They breed every two years. When breeding, a male will follow and guard a female in estrus. Adult males exist in two different forms: the brightly colored and "fatted" dominant males and the paler and "nonfatted" subordinate males. Both males exchange in mating, but only the dominant males are able to sire offspring.[16] Males sometimes fight for breeding rights which results in dominance. Though conflicts are rare they can be deadly and occasionally fatal. Gaining dominance, that is becoming the alpha male results in an increased testicular volume, reddening of sexual skin on the face and genitalia, and heightened secretion of the sternal cutaneous gland.[23] When a male loses dominance or its alpha status, the reverse happens, although the blue ridges remain brightened. When a male losses dominance,there is a fall in its reproductive success. This effect is gradual and takes place over a few years.[24][25][26] When subordinates mate-guard a female, the competition between them allows the dominant males to have a greater chance of siring offspring,[27] since subordinates outnumber dominates 21 to 1. There is also a dominance hierarchy among females, with reproductive success being displayed in shorter interbirth intervals amongst these alpha figures and the beginning of reproduction at earlier ages.[27]

Mandrill births occur from January to May.[28] Most births in Gabon occur in the wet season, from January to March, and gestation usually lasts 175 days.[27] The interbirth intervals last 405 days.[27] Young are born with a black natal coat and pink skin. The females do most of the raising of the young. Alloparenting exists in this species, with aunts, sisters and cousins providing care for the young. This allows females to obtain necessary food resources and defend against predation.[29] Males leave their natal groups when they are six years old and become peripheral to the social group.[15][22]

Mandrills will make a "silent, bared-teeth face", where it exposes its teeth by curling back the lips, erects the crest of the head, while shaking the head. This has a peaceful function.[30][31] A mandrill submits by presenting the rump. With aggression, mandrills will stare, bob their heads, and slap the ground.[31] Long distance calls that are made include the roars, crowings, and "two-phase grunts", while short distance calls that are made include "yaks", grunts, "k-alarms", "k-sounds", screams, girneys, and grinds.[32]

Status and conservation

The mandrill is considered vulnerable,[2] and is affected by the destruction of its evergreen forest habitat, since this reduces the capacity of environments to support mandrill populations. However, the most immediate threat is posed by hunting for their meat, which is highly prized in Gabon. Commercial bushmeat hunters pose a particular threat to populations which are located close to main roads and towns. Mandrills appear to be most seriously threatened in the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville).[2] Nevertheless, there have been captive-bred individuals that have been successfully reintroduced into the wild.[33]

References

  1. ^ Groves, C. P. (2005). Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 165. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. OCLC 62265494.
  2. ^ a b c Template:IUCN2008
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nowak1999 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Darwin, Charles (1871). The Descent of Man, and selection in relation to sex. D. Appleton and Co, New York.
  5. ^ a b c Ankel-Simons F. (2007) Primate Anatomy: an introduction, 3rd Edition. San Diego: Elsevier Acad Pr. 724 p.
  6. ^ Feistner ATC. (1991) "Scent marking in mandrills, Mandrillus sphinx". Folia Primatol 57(1):42-7
  7. ^ a b Leigh SR, Setchell JM, Charpentier M, Knapp LA, Wickings EJ. (2008) "Canine tooth size and fitness in male mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) ". J Hum Evol 55(1):75-85.
  8. ^ WAZA - World Association of Zoos and Aquariums - Virtual Zoo[dead link‍]
  9. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi: 10.1023/A:1013245707228, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi= 10.1023/A:1013245707228 instead.
  10. ^ "Mammals: Mandrill". San Diego Zoo. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  11. ^ "Mandrill". National Georgraphic. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  12. ^ Sandhyarani, Ningthoujam (30 March 2011). "Mandrill Monkey Facts". Retrieved 5 February 2012.[unreliable source?]
  13. ^ a b c Sabater Pí J. (1972) "Contribution to the ecology of Mandrillus sphinx Linnaeus 1758 of Rio Muni (Republic of Equatorial Guinea) ". Folia Primatol 17:304-19.
  14. ^ a b c d Hoshino J. (1985) "Feeding ecology of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) in Campo Animal Reserve, Cameroon". Primates 26(3):248-73.
  15. ^ a b c d e f Harrison MJS. (1988) "The mandrill in Gabon's rain forest-ecology, distribution and status". Oryx 22(4):218-28.
  16. ^ a b c Rogers, M. E., Abernethy, K.A., Fontaine, B., Wickings, E.J., White, L.J.T and Tutin, C.E.G. (1996). "Ten Days in the Life of a Mandrill Horde in the Lopé Reserve, Gabon." Am J Primatol 40: 297-313.
  17. ^ Kudo H, Mitani M. (1985) "New record of predatory behavior by the mandrill in Cameroon". Primates 26(2):161-7.
  18. ^ Tutin CEG, Ham RM, White LJT, Harrison MJS. (1997). "The primate community of the Lopé Reserve, Gabon: diets, responses to fruit scarcity, and effects on biomass". Am J Primatol 42(1):1-24.
  19. ^ Jouventin P. (1975) "Observations sur la socio-ecologie du mandrill". Terre et la Vie 29:493-532.
  20. ^ Gill, Victoria (22 July 2011). "Mandrill monkey makes 'pedicuring' tool". BBC. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  21. ^ "Gabon". Wildlife Conservation Society. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  22. ^ a b c d e Abernethy KA, White LJT, Wickings EJ. (2002) "Hordes of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx): extreme group size and seasonal male presence". J Zool (Lond.) 258(1):131-7.
  23. ^ Setchell, J. M., and Dixson A.F. (2001) "Changes in the Secondary Sexual Adornments of Male Mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) Are Associated with Gain and Loss of Alpha Status." Hormones and Behavior 39(3): 177-184.
  24. ^ "Mask of the Mandrill". PBS. November 2006. {{cite web}}: Text "accessdate 4 February 2012" ignored (help)
  25. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.2004.01054.x, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1111/j.1439-0310.2004.01054.x instead.
  26. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1007/BF02382663, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1007/BF02382663 instead.
  27. ^ a b c d Setchell, J. M., and Dixson A.F. (2002) "Developmental Variables and Dominance Rank in Adolescent Male Mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx)." Am J Primatol 56: 9-25.
  28. ^ Wickings, E. J., and Dixson, A.F. (1992). "Development from birth to sexual maturity in a semi-free-ranging colony of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) in Gabon." Journal of Reproduction and Fertility 95(1): 139-144.
  29. ^ Charpentier, M., Peignot, P., Hossaert-Mckey, M., Gimenez, O., Setchell, J.M. and Wickings, E.J. (2005). "Constraints on control: factors influencing reproductive success in male mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx)." Behavioral Ecology 16(3): 614-623.
  30. ^ Bout N, Thierry B. (2005) "Peaceful meaning for the silent bared-teeth displays of mandrills". Int J Primatol 26(6):1215–28.
  31. ^ a b Setchell JM, Wickings EJ. (2005) "Dominance, status signals and coloration in male mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) ". Ethology 111(1):25-50.
  32. ^ Kudo H. (1987) "The study of vocal communication of wild mandrills in Cameroon in relation to their social structure". Primates 28(3):289-308.
  33. ^ Peignot P, Charpentier MJE, Bout N, Bourry O, Massima U, Dosimont O, Terramorsi R, WIckings EJ. (2008) "Learning from the first release project of captive-bred mandrills Mandrillus sphinx in Gabon". Oryx 32(1):122-31.
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