A monkey with a strikingly colourful face, the mandrill is one of Africa’s most interesting mammals. They thrive in the jungle environments of central Africa, and mandrill populations range from Cameroon to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While they are similar in some ways to baboons and were even classified as baboons until relatively recently, mandrills belong to their own genus—making them unique among the primate world. Their fur coloration ranges from an olive green to a silvery brown, and the face of a male mandrill has a large, elongated snout with a vibrant red stripe down the middle and blue ridges on either side, completed by a yellow beard at the chin. Female mandrills have similar coloration but in much less saturated hues. Unlike their baboon counterparts, mandrills have almost no tail at all, and they are in general quite ape-like—with a stocky frame and muscular limbs. Mandrills are omnivores, and they have a very diverse diet. Fruits, leaves, stems, bark, fibers, mushrooms, insects, snails, eggs, frogs, shrews, small antelope and even scorpions are just some of the foods on the mandrill menu. But mandrills are not at the top of the food chain, and they must be wary of leopards and rock pythons. Like many primates, female mandrills and their young live in large social groups for security and dependability. These groups are called hordes, and they can be made up of hundreds of individual mandrills. Adult male mandrills, however, live solitary lifestyles. They only join the horde during mating season. Fights and displays of aggression between males are common, and only the dominant and brightly-coloured alpha males are able to sire offspring. Females are left to care for the young on their own, and alloparenting has been observed among mandrills—meaning that female relatives will raise a baby whether or not they are the mother. Mandrills have been observed using tools, and they are highly intelligent monkeys. Their population numbers are threatened by shrinking ecosystems and harmful hunting practices.