Mandrills are found in forests, while baboons live in open country. The cheeks are bright blue and are folded into an elaborate pattern of ridges. The fur around the eyes is black, and the beard and the edges of the mane are pale yellow. The buttock pads are bright blue, red, and purple. The tail is a short stump.
Mandrills travel on the ground in small family groups, feeding chiefly on insects and vegetation.
Powerful animals, and formidable when provoked, they are retiring in habits and avoid contact with humans. They are extremely difficult to observe in the wild. The closely related drill, M. leucophaeus, is also a forest dweller. The mandrill and the drill are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Primates, family Cercopithecidae.