The Los Angeles Zoo has welcomed two baby mandrills, the largest of the monkey species and one of the most colorful.

(photo by Tad Motoyama)

The female baby was born on Aug. 3 to five-year-old mother, Juliette. The male baby was born on Aug. 17 to four-year-old mother, Clementine. The first-time mothers came to the zoo from Parc Zoologique de La Palmyr in France in April 2016 to be paired with the first-time father, six-year-old Jabari, as part of a species survival program.

“This is a very new breeding group of mandrills that has only been together for about a year, so we’re incredibly happy with how well things are going so far,” said L’Oreal Dunn, an animal keeper at the Los Angeles Zoo. “This species comes from a small area in Africa that isn’t accessible to most people, so it’s very special that our guests can now observe babies here for the first time in over 40 years.”

The half siblings can be seen clinging tightly to their mothers, playing together and testing their boundaries. They are learning to navigate their new habitat – a rainforest-like environment with trees, logs and plant life to explore during the day and aerial lofts and ledges where they sleep at night.

The babies were born without the signature red and blue stripes on their faces that may people often associate with the primates. The red and blue striped skin on male mandrills’ faces signal females that they are ready to mate. While female mandrills can have colorful hues on their face as well, the markings tend to be paler.

Mandrills look like baboons, but DNA studies have shown that they are more closely related to mangabeys. Mandrills come from the rainforests of western Africa in Cameroon, Gabon and southwestern Congo. Populations are under threat and declining due to habitat loss and fragmentation caused by the spread of agriculture and human settlement. They are also often hunted, as many Africans consider them to be a delicacy.

The Los Angeles Zoo is located at 5333 Zoo Drive. For information, call (323)644-4200, or visit lazoo.org.