Mandrills are the world's largest monkeys and among the most visually striking primates. Their complex social lives make adequate captive management exceptionally demanding.
Mandrill welfare in captivity is primarily a social management challenge. Their natural group sizes of hundreds of individuals are impossible to replicate in any zoo, meaning that captive social environments are necessarily artificial. Small groups with inappropriate sex ratios can lead to chronic subordinate stress and intermale aggression. Facilities keeping mandrills must invest heavily in large, complex exhibits with visual barriers that allow subordinate animals to escape dominant conspecifics. Without this, chronic social stress is inevitable.