Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Man­drills are found in south­west­ern Cameroon, west­ern Gabon, Equa­to­r­ial Guinea, and south­west­ern Congo.

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • native

Habi­tat

Man­drills are found in trop­i­cal rain for­est habi­tats, mon­tane and thick sec­ondary forests, and thick bush. Al­though they are adapted to live in the ground, man­drills seek shel­ter in the trees dur­ing the night.

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• rainforest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Man­drills reach a height of about 80 cm. The species is char­ac­ter­ized by a large head, a com­pact body with long, pow­er­ful limbs, and a stubby tail, which is held up­right. The wide ro­tat­ing range of the clav­i­cles en­ables climb­ing trees, the quadrupedal walk, and the func­tion­ing of the arms. Op­pos­able thumbs allow these mon­keys to grasp tree branches. Both sexes have paired mam­mary glands in the chest re­gion.

The pelage is an olive green with paler un­der­parts. It has a bril­liantly col­ored blue to pur­ple naked rump. A man­drill's face has a red stripe down the mid­dle of the muz­zle and aroung the nos­trils, while the sides of the muz­zle are ridged length­wise and col­ored blue. This helps to dis­tin­guish this species from drills which have jet black faces. Man­drills have red fur patches above the eyes and a yel­low beard. These col­or­ings are duller in fe­males and ju­ve­niles than in adult males.

These an­i­mals are re­ported to have av­er­age weights of 11.5 for fe­males, and 25 kg for males. Males are sig­nif­i­cantly larger than fe­males and may weigh up to 54 kg.

The head and body mea­sure­ments range be­tween 610 and 764 mm.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger
• male more colorful
• ornamentation

• Range mass

  54 (high) kg

  118.94 (high) lb

• Average mass

  11.5-25 kg

  lb

• Range length

  610 to 764 mm

  24.02 to 30.08 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Man­drills live in groups, mostly in a harem struc­ture, where a dom­i­nant male de­fends a group of fe­males to whom he has ex­clu­sive mat­ing rights.

• Mating System
• polygynous

Breed­ing is not sea­sonal but rather oc­curs about every two years, de­pend­ing on the avail­able food sup­ply. Mat­ing is be­lieved to occur be­tween July and Oc­to­ber, while birthing oc­curs be­tween De­cem­ber and April. Fe­males give birth to their first young any­where be­tween 4 and 8 years of age. Ges­ta­tion lasts for about 6 months after which fe­males give birth to a sin­gle young. Twin young have only been ob­served in capiv­ity. In­fants are born with a black natal coat and pink skin, both of which en­dure for the first two months of life. (Mac­don­ald, 1987)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• year-round breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Mandrills breed every two years.

• Breeding season

  Mating is believed to occur between July and October.

• Average number of offspring

  1

• Average number of offspring

  1

  AnAge

• Average gestation period

  6 months

• Average gestation period

  173 days

  AnAge

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  4 to 8 years

Parental in­vest­ment has not been ex­ten­sively char­ac­ter­ized in this species. How­ever, it is likely that these an­i­mals are sim­i­lar to other pri­mates in which breed­ing oc­curs in a harem polyg­yny sit­u­a­tion.

The bulk of the care for in­fants in such species is pro­vided by the mother. Moth­ers give their young pro­tec­tion, groom­ing, and nour­ish­ment (milk). How­ever, aunts, sis­ters, cousins, and other off­spring of the mother may pro­vide some care for young, in­clud­ing car­ry­ing, play­ing with, and groom­ing the young.

In species where one male mates with fe­males, males also pro­vide parental care. This may be di­rect, in the form of car­ry­ing, play­ing with, and groom­ing young, or it may be in­di­rect, in that the fa­ther pro­tects all the mem­bers of his harem group from po­ten­tially dan­ger­ous rival males.

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• extended period of juvenile learning

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The max­i­mum lifes­pan re­ported for this genus is 46 years.

• Average lifespan
  Sex: female
  Status: captivity

  31.7 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  46.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Be­hav­ior

Man­drill groups can range in size from a few head up to 50 in­di­vid­u­als. Al­though the dom­i­nant male often strays from the group, he will re­turn im­me­di­ately upon any sign of dan­ger. Man­drills live on the ground by day and sleep in trees at night.

Their bright col­or­ing is a key fea­ture in so­cial be­hav­ior. When ex­cited, the blue color of the pad on their but­tocks in­ten­si­fies, their chest turns blue, and red dots may ap­pear on the wrists and an­kles. The flash­ing of the bright rump, which orig­i­nated as a a sig­nal of re­cep­tive­ness in es­tru­ous fe­males, has also been in­ter­preted as an act of sub­mis­sive­ness in both sexes. This be­hav­ior, typ­i­cal be­tween sub­or­di­nates and dom­i­nants, is con­sid­ered "proper be­hav­ior."

To ex­hibit play­ful­ness, a male man­drill shakes his head and shoul­ders; this is an in­vi­ta­tion to be groomed. The ex­po­sure of teeth with the lips slightly lifted, ac­com­pa­nied by oc­ca­sional chat­ter, is a sign of friend­li­ness and gen­eral well-be­ing.

When an­gered, man­drills slap the ground vi­o­lently. They may stare in­tently at an ob­server while scratch­ing their fore­arm or thigh.

A yawn­ing ges­ture is given when man­drills are un­able to carry out a de­sired ac­tiv­ity, such as mat­ing or fight­ing. This yawn­ing also oc­curs as part of a threat where the man­drill spreads its arms, dis­plays its low­ered head, and flashes its pow­er­ful teeth.

Groom­ing is a com­mon ac­tiv­ity and may be ac­com­pa­nied by smack­ing noises sim­i­lar to those heard dur­ing cop­u­la­tion. Man­drills com­mu­ni­cate by grunt­ing while in the forset; this main­tains con­tact where vis­i­bil­ity is low.

(Grz­i­mak's, 1972)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• terricolous
• diurnal
• motile
• sedentary
• social
• dominance hierarchies

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

As de­scribed above in the sec­tion for be­hav­ior, com­mu­ni­ca­tion is var­ied and com­plex in this species. It in­volves a va­ri­ety of com­po­nents, in­clud­ing vi­sual and ac­coustic sig­nals, scents, and tac­tile in­for­ma­tion.

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• scent marks

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Man­drills have a highly var­ied diet in­clud­ing fruit, seeds, fungi, roots, in­sects, snails, worms, frogs, lizards, and some­times snakes and even small ver­te­brates. Gen­er­ally, man­drill males scrounge for food on the ground while fe­males and their young sit in mi­dlevel trees.

• Primary Diet
• omnivore

• Animal Foods
• amphibians
• reptiles
• insects
• mollusks
• terrestrial worms

• Plant Foods
• roots and tubers
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit

• Other Foods
• fungus

Pre­da­tion

Preda­tors of this species have not been re­ported, but are likely to in­clude large car­ni­vores, such as leop­ards.

Ecosys­tem Roles

These mon­keys are likely to play some role in seed dis­per­sal. To the ex­tent that they serve as preda­tors or as prey, they may have some ef­fect on local food webs.

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Man­drills are com­monly found in zoos. Be­cuse of their long life spans, they are valu­able, long­time res­i­dents. The are also hunted for their meat in some areas.

• Positive Impacts
• food
• research and education

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

In zoos, man­drills can be nui­sances be­cuse they are very skill­full in tak­ing ar­ti­cles from vis­i­tors, such as pipes and glasses. At the Zurich Zoo in Ger­many, glass had to be put up in front of the man­drill dis­play for in­sur­ance rea­sons. In their nat­ural habi­tat, man­drills may take oil palm fruits from local plan­ta­tions. When food is scarce, they may also raid crops from nearby farms.

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

There has been a dras­tic de­cline in the man­drill pop­u­la­tion dur­ing re­cent years due to habi­tat de­struc­tion. They are es­pe­cially vul­ner­a­ble to hunters be­cause of their loud calls. Man­drills are hunted as a local food source in sev­eral areas. Cur­rently, man­drills oc­cupy forests at a very low den­sity and are poorly pro­tectd if at all. As a re­sult, they may be threat­ened with com­plete ex­tinc­tion in the wild. (Gale, 146)

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• US Federal List

  Endangered

• CITES

  Appendix I

Con­trib­u­tors

Nancy Shef­ferly (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Lisa In­g­mars­son (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Emanoil, M. (ed.). 1994. En­cy­clo­pe­dia of En­dan­gered Species. De­troit: Gale Re­search, Inc.

Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia. 1972. New York: Van Nos­trand Rein­hold Com­pany.

Mac­don­ald, David. 1987. En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­maks. Ox­ford: Equinox.

Nowak, R. 1999. Walker's Mam­mals of the World, Sixth Edi­tion. Bal­ti­more and Lon­don: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.