THE precious primates entered the world just five weeks apart and are the first of their kind to be born at the zoo in more than a decade.

The first to arrive was born to 10-year-old mum Brio, providing her with her first taste of parenthood, with the second infant arriving to more experienced mum, Obi, who is 17. The new babies are half siblings and share the same dad, Kamau.

Mandrills are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of threatened species, with numbers in the wild having declined significantly in recent years.

Mandrills are the world’s largest monkey species and are native to a region of Western Africa.

Read more about mandrills in this week’s First News!