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Mandrill

Mandrill
Temporal range: 1.2–0 Ma
Early – Recent
Mandrill at san francisco zoo.jpg
Male
Mandrill (4531340530).jpg
Female
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorhini
Family: Cercopithecidae
Genus: Mandrillus
Species: M. sphinx
Binomial name
Mandrillus sphinx
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Mandrill area.png
Mandrill range

The mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) is a primate of the Old World monkey (Cercopithecidae) family. It is one of two species assigned to the genus Mandrillus, along with the drill. Both the mandrill and the drill were once classified as baboons in the genus Papio, but they now have their own genus, Mandrillus. Although they look superficially like baboons, they are more closely related to Cerocebus mangabeys. Mandrills are found in southern Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo. Mandrills mostly live in tropical rainforests. They live in very large groups. Mandrills have an omnivorous diet consisting mostly of fruits and insects. Their mating season peaks in July to September, with a corresponding birth peak in December to April.

Mandrills are the world's largest monkeys. 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". The mandrill is classified as vulnerable by IUCN.

The mandrill 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 tufts. The areas around the genitals and the anus are multi-colored, being red, pink, blue, scarlet, and purple. They also have pale pink ischial callosities. The coloration of the animal is more pronounced in dominant adult males. Both sexes have chest glands, which are used in olfactory communication. These, too, are more prominent in dominant adult males. Males also have longer canines than females, with an average of 4.5 cm (1.8 in) and 1.0 cm, respectively.


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Wikipedia

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