Animal Directory Featured species in the planned Primate Forest habitat
Mandrill
Mandrillus sphinx
VU
Fun facts
- The largest monkey in the world — dominant adult males weigh up to 38 kg, dwarfing most macaques and baboons.
- Adult males display the most vivid facial coloration of any mammal — bright blue ridges flanking a scarlet nasal stripe — and the brilliance of the colour scales directly with testosterone and social rank.
- Mandrills live in some of the largest social groups of any non-human primate; "hordes" of 600-plus animals have been recorded crossing forest clearings in Gabon.
- Their rump is similarly coloured to the face, which helps the horde stay visually connected as it moves single-file through dense understorey.
- The species is restricted to the rainforests of southern Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and the Republic of the Congo, and is listed as Vulnerable, with bushmeat hunting as the primary threat.
From the master plan
The Mandrill family group occupies the Primate Forest lowland-rainforest habitat, sharing visual space with the chimpanzee enclosure across a planted ravine. The deck’s family-discovery moments are designed around the species’ visual drama — the dominant male’s face is one of the park’s most photographed close-ups.
IUCN status sourced from the Mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) assessment (Abernethy & Maisels, 2019) on the IUCN Red List — listed as Vulnerable with a continuing population decline.
Find them in
Zone 04
Primate Forest
A lush forest realm where intelligence, connection, and curiosity thrive
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