MANDRILLS GET NEW ADDITION, FIRST SINCE 2003
Three days before Mother’s Day, the Denver Zoo welcomed a baby mandrill into its primate troop — the first such birth since the zoo’s “mandrill baby boom” in 2003. Kesi was born May 10 and made her public debut Friday, according to a Denver Zoo news release. Kesi is her parents’ first baby and an important addition to a species that is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Mandrills are a primate native to the rain forests in central West Africa. They have bright blue and red faces and can store almost an entire stomach’s worth of food in their cheek pouches. The most well-known mandrill is the character Rafiki in “The Lion King.”
Kesi’s mother, Kumani, arrived at the zoo last year as part of a plan by U.S. zoos to help threatened species survive. — Elise Schmelzer,