Abstract
A field study on the ecology of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) was carried out for 28 months in Cameroon. Fresh food remnants and large quantities of fresh feces were collected by following the groups. Analyses of these products indicated that fruit (including seeds), monocotyledonous plant leaves and insects (especially ants and termites), were frequently eaten. Mandrills mostly ate the plant and animal foods in the lower forest stratum and on the ground. Fallen seeds and monocotyledonous plant leaves were eaten more frequently in the minor fruiting season than in the major fruiting season presumably to compensate for the shortage of fresh fruit during the former. Daily travel distances were shorter during the minor fruiting season than during the major fruiting season, because in the minor fruiting season mandrills forage for small food items, such as the new leaves and piths of monocotyledons and fallen seeds which are sparsely distributed on the ground, while in the major fruiting season they search for widely distributed food such as fruit. The daily pattern of group movement and a food intake experiment suggest that mandrills move and feed continuously throughout the day. Use of fallen seeds and monocotyledonous plant leaves appears to enable mandrills to maintain a terrestrial life in the tropical rain forest. The feeding and ranging characteristics of mandrills are basically similar to those of other baboon species in open land, though their environments differ extremely.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altmann, S. A. &J. Altmann, 1970.Baboon Ecology, Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago & London.
Andrews, P. &A. H. van Couvering, 1975. Palaeoenvironments in the East African Miocene. In:Approaches to Primate Palaeobiology, Contributions to Primatology, Vol. 5,F. S. Szalay (ed.), S. Karger, Basel, pp. 62–103.
Cooke, H. B. S., 1978. Africa: the physical setting. In:Evolution of African Mammals,V. J. Maglio &H. B. S. Cooke (eds.), Harvard Univ. Press, London, pp. 17–45.
Davidge, C., 1978. Ecology of baboons (Papio ursinus) at Cape Point.Zoologica Africana, 13: 329–350.
DeVore, I. &S. L. Washburn, 1963. Baboon ecology and human evolution. In:African Ecology and Human Evolution,F. C. Howell &F. Bourlière (eds.), Aldine Publishing Co., Chicago, pp. 335–367.
———— &K. R. L. Hall, 1965. Baboon ecology. In:Primate Behavior,I. DeVore (ed.), Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, pp. 20–52.
Delson, E., 1975. Evolutionary history of the Cercopithecidae. In:Approaches to Primate Paleobiology, Contributions to Primatology, Vol. 5,F. S. Szalay (ed.), S. Karger, Basel, pp. 167–217.
Dunbar, R. I. M., 1977. Feeding ecology of gelada baboons: a preliminary report. In:Primate Ecology,T. H. Clutton-Brock (ed.), Academic Press, London, pp. 251–273.
———— &E. P. Dunbar, 1974. Ecological relations and niche separation between sympatric terrestrial primates in Ethiopia.Folia Primatol., 21: 36–60.
Gartlan, J. S., 1970. Preliminary notes on the ecology and behaviour of the DrillMandrillus leucophaeus Ritgen, 1824. In:Old World Monkeys,J. R. Napier &P. H. Napier (eds.), Academic Press, New York, pp. 445–480.
———— &T. T. Struhsaker, 1972. Polyspecific association and niche separation of rain-forest anthropoids in Cameroon, West Africa.J. Zool. London, 168: 221–266.
Gautier-Hion, A., 1978. Food niches and coexistence in sympatric primates in Gabon. In:Recent Advances in Primatology; Vol. I: Behaviour,D. J. Chivers &J. Herbert (eds.), Academic Press, London, pp. 269–286.
————, 1980. Seasonal variations of diet related to species and sex in a community ofCercopithecus monkeys.J. Anim. Ecol., 49: 237–269.
————, 1983. Leaf consumption by monkeys in western and eastern Africa: a comparison.Afr. J. Ecol., 21: 107–113.
————, 1984. La dissémination des graines par les cercopithècides forestiers africains.Rev. Ecol. (La Terre et la Vie), 39: 159–165.
————,L.H. Emmons &G. Dubost, 1980. A comparison of the diets of three major groups of primary consumers of Gabon (Primates, Squirrels and Ruminants).Oecologia, 45: 182–189.
————,J. P. Gautier &R. Quris, 1981. Forest structure and fruit availability as complementary factors influencing habitat use by a troop of monkeys (Cercopithecus cephus).La Terre et la Vie, 35: 511–536.
Grubb, P., 1978. Patterns of speciation in african mammals.Bull. Carnegie Mus. Nat. Hist., 6: 152–167.
Hall, K. R. L., 1963. Variations in the ecology of the chacma baboons,Papio ursinus. Symp. Zool. Soc. Lond., 10: 1–28.
Hamilton, A. C., 1976. The significance of patterns of distribution shown by forest plants and animals in tropical Africa for the reconstruction of upper Pleistocene palaeoenvironments: a review.Palaeoecol. Afr., 9: 63–97.
Harding, R. S. O., 1976. Ranging patterns of a troop of baboons (Papio anubis) in Kenya.Folia Primatol., 25: 143–185.
----, 1981. An order of omnivores: nonhuman primate diets in the wild. In:Omnivorous Primates,R. S. O. Harding & G. Teleki (eds.), Columbia Univ. Press, pp. 191–214.
Harvey, P. H., 1977. The measurement of dietetic diversity. In:Primate Ecology,T. H. Clutton-Brock (ed.), Academic Press, London & New York, pp. 591–594.
Hladik, C. M., 1973. Alimentation et activité d'un groupe de chimpanzées réintroduits en forêt gabonaise.La Terre et la Vie, 27: 343–413.
————, 1977. Chimpanzees of Gabon and chimpanzees of Gombe: some comparative data on the diet. In:Primate Ecology,T. H. Clutton-Brock (ed.), Academic Press, London & New York, pp. 481–501.
Hoshino, J., A. Mori, H. Kudo &M. Kawai, 1984. Preliminary report on the grouping of Mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) in Cameroon.Primates, 25: 295–307.
Iwamoto, T., 1979. Feeding ecology. In:Ecological and Sociological Studies of Gelada Baboons,M. Kawai (ed.), Kodansha, Tokyo & S. Karger, Basel, pp. 280–330.
Jolly, C. J., 1972. The classification and natural history ofTheropithecus (Simopithecus) (Andrews, 1916),baboons of the African Plio-Pleistocene.Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) Geology, 22: 1–123.
Jouventin, P., 1975. Observations sur la socio-écologie du Mandrill.La Terre et la Vie, 29: 439–532.
Kawai, M., S. Ando &A. Mizuno, 1975. A quantitative study on the activities of the forest-living monkeys in the Kibale forest of Uganda by using a radio-telemetry technique.Kyoto Univ. African Study, IX: 1–20.
Kawai, M. (ed.), 1979.Ecological and Sociological Studies of Gelada Baboons. Kodansha, Tokyo & Karger, Basel.
Kleiber, M., 1961.The Fire of Life. Wiley, New York.
Kudo, H. &M. Mitani, 1985. New record of predatory behavior of mandrill in Cameroon.Primates, 26: 161–167.
Kummer, H., 1968.Social Organization of Hamadryas Baboons. Karger, Basel.
Letouzey, R., 1968.Étude Phytogéographyque du Cameroun. P. Lechevalier, Paris.
McKey, D. B., J. S. Gartlan, P. G. Waterman &G. M. Choo, 1981. Food selection by black colobus monkeys (Colobus satanas) in relation to plant chemistry.Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 16: 115–146.
———— &P. G. Waterman, 1982. Ranging behaviour of a group of black colobus (Colobus satanas) in the Douala-Edea Reserve, Cameroon.Folia Primatol., 39: 264–304.
Montgomery, G. G. (ed.), 1978.The Ecology of Arboreal Folivores. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
Napier, J. R., 1970. Paleoecology and catarrhine evolution. In:Old World Monkeys,J. R. Napier & P. H. Napier (eds.), Academic Press, pp. 53–95.
Post, D. G., 1981. Activity patterns of yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) in the Amboseli National Park, Kenya.Anim. Behav., 29: 357–374.
————, 1982. Feeding behavior of yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) in the Amboseli National Park, Kenya.Int. J. Primatol., 3: 403–430.
Quris, R., J.-P. Gautier, J.-Y. Gautier &A. Gautier-Hion, 1981. Organization spatio-temporelle des activités individuelle et sociales dans une troupe deCercopithecus cephus.La Terre et la Vie, 35: 37–53.
Rowell, T. E., 1966. Forest living baboons in Uganda.J. Zool. London, 149: 344–364.
Sabater Pí, J., 1972. Contribution to the ecology ofMandrillus sphinx Linnaeus 1758 of Rio Muni (Republic of Equatorial Guinea).Folia Primatol., 17: 304–319.
Sakata, K., K. Kawazu &T. Mitsui, 1971. Studies on a piscicidal constituent of Hura crepitans. Part I. Isolation and characterization of huratoxin and its piscicidal activity.Agr. Biol. Chem., 35: 1084–1091.
Sigg, H. &A. Stolba, 1981. Home range and daily march in a hamadryas baboon troop.Folia Primatol., 36: 40–75.
Struhsaker, T. T., 1975.The Red Colobus Monkey. Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago.
Szalay, F. S. &E. Delson, 1979.Evolutionary History of the Primates. Academic Press, New York & London.
Wilson, E. O. &W. H. Bossert, 1971.A Primer of Population Biology. Sinauer Associates, Stanford.
Wolfheim, J. H., 1983.Primates of the World: Distribution, Abundance and Conservation. Univ. Washington Press, Seattle & London.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
About this article
Cite this article
Hoshino, J. Feeding ecology of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) in campo animal reserve, Cameroon. Primates 26, 248–273 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02382401
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02382401