European mandrill (SciiFii)

The European mandrill (Mandrillus cinereus), also known as the European drill, is a species of primate of the Old World monkey (Cercopithecidae) family that originally did not exist, but has since been created by SciiFii and introduced throughout the wetlands, forests, and open woodlands across Europe to help boost biodiversity. The European mandrill is one of the largest monkeys of Europe, with males typically weighing 19–37 kg (42–82 lb), with an average mass of 32.3 kg (71 lb). Females weigh roughly half as much as the male, at 10–15 kg (22–33 lb) and an average of 12.4 kg (27 lb). The European mandrill has a light brown or dark greyish-brown pelage with yellow and black bands and a white belly. Its hairless face, which is dark gray in color, has an elongated muzzle with distinctive light grey stripe down the middle and protruding white ridges on the sides. The mandrill is an omnivore. It usually consumes plants, of which it eats over two hundred species. It prefers to eat fruits, but will also eat leaves, lianas, bark, stems, and fibers. It also consumes mushrooms and soil. Carnivorously, European mandrills mostly eat invertebrates, particularly ants, beetles, termites, crickets, spiders, snails, and scorpions. It will also eat eggs, and even vertebrates such as birds, tortoises, frogs, porcupines, rats, and shrews. European mandrills likely will eat larger vertebrates when they have the opportunity, such as juvenile fallow deer, saiga, and other small antelope and deer. Large prey are likely killed with a bite to the nape with the European mandrill's long canines. The European mandrill's diet composes of fruit (50.7%), seeds (26.0%), leaves (8.2%), pith (6.8%), flowers (2.7%), and animal foods (4.1%), with other foods making up the remaining (1.4%). European mandrills are preyed on mainly by leopards. Additional predators known to attack both adult and young European mandrills include golden eagles, European crowned eagles, and European rock pythons. European mandrills are mostly terrestrial but they are more arboreal than baboons and feed as high as the canopy. When on the ground, European mandrills walk by digitigrade quadrupedalism (walking on the toes of all four limbs). When in the trees, they often move by lateral jumps. European mandrills are mostly diurnal, with activities extending from morning to evening. They sleep in trees at a different site each night. European mandrills have been observed using tools; in captivity, mandrills have been observed using sticks to clean themselves. Mandrills seem to live in very large, stable groups named 'hordes'. A horde can number in the hundreds of European mandrills, averaging around 500 individuals and reaching as many as 800. The conservation status of the European mandrill is Least Concern due to successful conservation efforts and the European mandrill's wide range.
Category:Animals
Category:Species
Category:SciiFii