620±167, range 345-850.
0-11.6 km/day, average 4.2km
One young born approx. every 2 years.
• 33% adult females
• 1-2% breeding males
• 45% young < 4 years
• 10% infants <1 year
• 10% subadult males, 5-9yrs old
• Solitary after the age of 5
years, spending short periods in the horde.
• Breeding age at 10 years old when full coloration
develops.
Around 14 years in the wild, in captivity animals are known to survive beyond 20 years.
Since 1998.
Gabon National Parks Office, Gabon Ministry of Water and Forests, International Center for Medical Research (CIRMF), University of Stirling, University of Exeter, WCS Field Vet.
We currently have no estimate for the number
of mandrills left in the wild Mandrills live in large, rarely
encountered groups and we have no reliable method with which to
census them.
Name : Kate Abernethy
Title : Director, SEGC Lopé
Email:
kabernethy[AT SIGN]wcsgabon[DOT]org
Address :
Wildlife Conservation Society,
BP 7847,
Libreville,
Gabon.
For more information, see www.wcs.org/africa
Wildlife Conservation Society International
Conservation,
Africa Program,
2300 Southern Blvd.,
Bronx, NY 10460, USA
The Wildlife Conservation Society's International Conservation program saves wildlife and wild lands by understanding and resolving critical problems that threaten key species and large, wild ecosystems around the world.
• Site-based conservation
• Research
• Training and capacity-building
• New model development
• Informing policy
• Linking zoo-based and field-based conservation
Contributions to this project can be sent to the WCS Africa Program in NY (address above)
Mandrill group in Lopé National Park ©Malcolm
Starkey
Mandrills are one of the most exotic species found in Central Africa. Although they are well-known and found in many zoo collections, very little is known of their ecology in the wild.
In 1998, in collaboration with the Gabon government's Wildlife Department, WCS initiated a three-phase project to develop a national conservation strategy for the species.
In the first phase the ecology of the species was studied in detail in the Lopé National Park. In particular, attention was paid to their numbers and ranging behavior, in order to discover whether the Park protected mandrills well.
The second phase was designed outside the Park, to look at the possible threats to mandrill survival: hunting, logging and habitat loss, disease and possible genetic problems.
The final phase will put together the discoveries about mandrill needs in the wild and the contemporary threats to their survival to design a National Conservation Plan that will help mandrills to survive in Gabon.
The first phase of ecological research showed, among other things, that mandrills live in huge hordes of 700 animals at a time and range over large distances each day. This nomadic lifestyle means that they need large areas to live in. Dense group living may make each group more sensitive to communicable diseases, but may mean that the whole population is less sensitive as contact between groups is low.
Mandrills come into conflict with humans when they are hunted for meat or raid village plantations for food. In some areas mandrills are a major crop-raiding pest and are regularly snared to prevent crop losses. Development of tourism for viewing mandrills may put them in a more positive light in Lopé and could be possible in the other Parks in which they occur.
Human hunting is probably the biggest threats to mandrill survival in the short term, but wildlife diseases, such as SIV virus, or the Ebola virus, may also take heavy tolls on these primates.
Natacha Bengone N'ssi places a radio-collar on a male mandrill
in Lopé NP ©Lee White