학급 수업 자료 · Wildlife · 🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea

Drill Monkey

One of Africa's rarest and most colourful primates

A drill monkey with its bright coloured face and dark fur in the forest

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

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The drill is one of the largest monkeys in Africa and one of the rarest. It lives in the rainforests of Bioko Island and the mainland, and is known for the male's extraordinary face - dark with a bright red lower lip, like a splash of paint on its chin. Drills live in large social groups and are closely related to the mandrill.

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A male drill can weigh up to 50 kilograms, making it one of the biggest monkeys on Earth - about the same weight as a ten-year-old's bicycle! But despite their size, drills are shy and usually try to move away quietly when they sense people nearby. They travel through the forest in groups that can contain dozens of individuals, with one or two large males keeping watch.

The most striking thing about a male drill is its bottom! It is brilliantly coloured in shades of pink, red, blue and purple - scientists believe this is how drills signal their health and strength to other members of the group. Females, which are much smaller than males, choose partners partly based on how vivid these colours are.

Drills eat a wide variety of forest foods: fruit, seeds, leaves, mushrooms, and occasionally small lizards or insects. Because they move through the forest eating and dropping seeds, they help many trees spread to new places. Scientists call this 'seed dispersal', and animals that do it are extremely important for keeping the forest healthy.

Bioko Island is one of the last remaining strongholds for drills in the wild. Researchers visit the island specifically to study them and help protect them. Local communities are increasingly involved in monitoring drill populations, and some villages have set aside land where drills can move safely without disturbance.

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토론 질문

  1. 01Why might it be helpful for animals to have very bright colours? Can you think of other animals that use colour to communicate?
  2. 02How do drills accidentally help the forest by eating fruit and dropping seeds?
  3. 03Drills are shy around people. How do you think scientists manage to study shy animals in the wild?
  4. 04Why is it important that local communities get involved in protecting wildlife near their homes?
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학급 활동

Design a 'Wanted: Seed Dispersers' poster for a rainforest notice board. Choose three animals from Equatorial Guinea that might eat fruit and spread seeds. For each one, draw the animal and write two sentences explaining how it helps the forest.

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