The two newborn baby mandrills, the largest of all monkeys and easily identified by the blue and red skin on their faces, are doing well at the Tata Steel zoo here.
The Tata Steel Zoological Society is the only zoo in India to have mandrills, member of the managing committee of the zoo Rajnish Kumar said.
A group of five mandrills, two males Erik and Dror and three females Tiptip, Tania and Yehudith were gifted by the TISCH Family Zoological Gardens, Jerusalem, Israel and arrived at the Tata zoo on August 13, 2011.
Yehudith and Tania gave birth to two babies on February 27 and March 21 this year.
The two babies are almost two-and-a-half-month-old now and can be seen riding with their mothers, suckling, and starting to explore their surroundings, he said.
The first baby mandrill was born to Tiptip on April 30 last year.
Kumar said that the strength of mandrills at Tata Zoo is now eight.
Mandrills (mandrillus sphinx) is found in the equatorial region of western Africa and their habitats are primarily rain forests.
