Drills are included on the IUCN red list and their alarming decline raises fears that their situation will be considered “critical.”

This summer is being especially exciting for the entire BIOPARC team, as really important births continue to happen. On this occasion it was Abuja, one of the two adult females of the drill breeding group (Mandrillus leucophaeus), who has given birth to a new calf. The large family of ten members is completed by the dominant male Rafiki, the female Kianja and the offspring. With its participation in the European Endangered Species Program (EEP), The Valencian park has established itself in recent years as a reference in conservation ex situ of this threatened species.

The “baby” represents a new success to guarantee its survival within the international project in which BIOPARC participates.

The drill is one of the most endangered primates in Africa. Included in the red list of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), it is feared that, with a population of less than 4.000 individuals and with a downward trend, their situation is considered “critical”. Mainly worrying is its extreme fragmentation, habitat loss and poaching, so each birth represents a success towards its survival.

In one of its main conservation collaborations in situ, the BIOPARC Foundation acts on the Ebo forest (Cameroon). In this valuable area, in addition to protecting the gorillas, the development of the groups of drills that inhabit it is being favored.

This little-known African primate, It has a very peculiar appearance with marked sexual dimorphism and with a social structure led by a reproductive male. Noticeably larger than females, males develop colorful purple-blue markings on the buttocks and deep red markings in the genital area and along the lower lip. Equally characteristic of the species is its face; Completely clear at birth, it darkens until it looks like an intense black mask that, together with the prominent fangs that they show when yawning, gives them a fierce appearance.

After the technical team verified that the breeding is developing normally, BIOPARC has already we can see the whole family in one of the most attractive multispecies enclosures in the park: lhe area that recreates the riparian forests of the Equatorial Africa area, in the “multispecies” enclosure where They coexist with other species of animals such as sitatungas, pygmy hippos, talapoines and Nile geese.