Mandrill Dominant Male — Lopé Forest Face Display
224.20 £
A dominant male mandrill in the Lopé National Park Gabon — the full facial colouration of ridge blue and nose red at maximum saturation, the yellow beard in full display posture, the forest understorey providing the background.
Description
The mandrill’s facial colouration — the most vivid colouration of any mammal, the ridged blue of the maxillary swellings and the red of the nose and lips intensifying with testosterone levels — is a reliable indicator of male dominance status. The dominant male of a large mandrill group in Lopé National Park carries the most saturated facial pigmentation of any male in the troop. This image was made during a field study of the Lopé mandrill population conducted by the Max Planck Institute, the dominant male habituated to researcher presence through years of observation. The close-range portrait was made at 200mm from a distance of 6 metres, the focal length and distance creating the perspective compression that emphasises the facial colouration against the softly blurred forest background. The yellow beard — fully developed in dominant males — frames the blue-and-red facial display. The image required months of habituation work by the field team.
