A nearly two-month-old baby mandrill is running around the Bronx Zoo's Congo exhibit, or more likely, clinging to its mother.
The female was born on July 3, and the Wildlife Conservation Society notes that the Bronx Zoo is "one of only 26 zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums with mandrills and there are fewer than 100 individuals in the AZA population." The last time a baby mandrill was born in the Bronx was in 2013.
Mandrills are known for their colorful faces and fur—you remember Rafiki from the Lion King, of course—with dominant males showing off their brightly colored markings (subordinate males are paler). They are also considered "vulnerable," with their population threatened by human activities including hunting for bushmeat and habitat loss.
The baby's parents are Sandy and Nigel; the latter is the only male mandrill and specifically arrived at the zoo as part of a breeding program. The baby will also be featured on the upcoming 2019 season of the Animal Planet show about the zoo, called The Zoo.
(Julie Larsen Maher / Wildlife Conservation Society)
The mandrills can be seen in the Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit—they share their space with red river hogs, and other animals in the exhibit include western lowland gorillas, Wolf’s monkeys, okapis, and many other species of central African reptiles, birds, fish and mammals.
