Adelaide Zoo Mandrill’s Visit the Vet for a Check-Up

Posted By : The Animal Facts Editorial Team

Date: June 11, 2020 11:00 am

Photo Credit: Adelaide Zoo

If you thought wrangling your child to the doctor was hard imagine having to take your mandrill there. Keepers at Adelaide Zoo have taken their 3 female mandrills for their bi-yearly check up with the zoo’s vets.

The mandrills known as Mayombe, Moabi and Niari see the vets every two years, both to ensure they are healthy and to receive their contraceptive implant as the zoo would not like to breed these animals at present.

Photo Credit: Adelaide Zoo

David McLelland, Veterinarian at Zoos SA said, “A health check like this allows us to identify things that they are really good at hiding from us and don’t let us pick up in their day to day life.”

“Any time we get our hands on an animal like this we try to do as much as we can. So, this means we give them a full general exam, take bloods to look at internal body function and X-rays to look at their chest, abdomen and skeleton,” he continued.

The health checks were a success and soon after the mandrills joined the rest of their troop. They live at the zoo with dominant male Tabah and two-year-old Jumoke who is Niari’s son.

Photo Credit: Adelaide Zoo

Mandrills are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and their keeper, Rebecca Sharpe explained that, “Mandrills face similar troubles to a number of species: deforestation, hunting and poaching for meat and pelts.”

Their population has been declining for the last 30 years as a result of these threats.

Adelaide Zoo’s mandrill troop are one of just two on display in Australia with the other at Tasmania Zoo. They will be on display once the zoo reopens following their Covid-19 closure.

Learn more about Mandrills here – Mandrill | The Animal Facts

Learn more about Adelaide Zoo here – Adelaide Zoo Website