In the words of the old people, it is "better to meet a wolf than to touch a mandrill".
You know, these beasts are very dangerous, and if you encounter them outside, you may be in danger of your life.
But what's going on with this big wooden mandrill? How do you give people a feeling that they are more terrifying than beasts?
The legend of the great baboon.
The record of "mandrills" began in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas".
The description of the mountain wood ray in this book is: infinite strength, can be defeated by wild beasts, and can compete with mountain gods.
But this depiction is not so much based on a fear of the "unknown" as it is a fear of "nature" rather than a real scientific observation.
Yuan Mei's description of "wild slaves" in the Qing Dynasty is more expressive.
He wrote the legend of the "mandrill" into "Zi Buyu".
In this **, the big wooden ray is ugly on the outside, but in fact it already has human intelligence and feelings, and can not only learn to speak, but also react accordingly.
However, due to fear and misunderstanding, the villagers launched a brutal attack on it.
In the end, the mountain wood ray disappeared under the attack of everyone, leaving only a mess and panic.
According to the description, the mandrill has two sharp teeth and colorful fluff on its neck.
Their limbs are very slender, especially their two feet, which are completely disproportionate to their size, and they walk on the left and right, sometimes jumping and jumping, which looks extremely strange.
The hands and legs that don't match the size of the body make it look weird and funny when running.
Legend has it that the giant baboon can stay still for long periods of time, and it's easy to mistake it for a strange stone or a broken piece of wood.
In ancient times, it was difficult to see strange-looking creatures such as "mandrills" because of low productivity, and they were also called "mountain ghosts" because of their bright colors and muffled voices, which often reminded people of ghosts.
Many classics describe the appearance and habits of the "mountain wood ray" extremely exaggerated, what is infinitely powerful, invincible, spit lotus, like to tease human beings, it is even more terrifying.
Legend has it that the "Yamaki Man" were adept at disguise, draping lost or discarded clothes and fallen hats over their bodies as a way to hide their eyes, know what items were valuable, and sometimes snatch valuables from people.
According to legend, there was a minister named Sun Yefei, who once witnessed a sudden "mandrill" attack, one night, he was drinking with a group of brothers, suddenly heard a strange collision sound, looked closely, but saw a strange-looking "thing" mixed into the crowd.
A few people, you look at me, I look at you, no one dared to speak, until the "thing" screamed and ran away, they realized that it was a mandrill.
Sun Yefei was curious, and led someone to chase after him, but saw that the mandrill was hiding in a kitchen, as if it was eyeing the sleeping cook.
In order to prevent the mountain wood ray from hurting people, Sun Yefei quickly woke up the cook, but the mountain wood ray started a fierce battle with the others, and finally he was seriously injured.
Early the next morning, when they returned to the back kitchen, they could no longer find the man named "Mandrill", and there was a blood-stained axe on the ground, in addition to a tattered hat.
I heard that this cap was inadvertently lost a few days ago.
However, there are still many descriptions of these wooden rays, such as the docile temperament of the wooden rays, which will not hurt anyone, as long as you don't provoke them, they will use fireworks to drive them away.
In some places, there is also the worship of the "mandrill god", which allows us to see a living person.
So, what exactly is this big wooden mandrill?
Great baboon: A striking primate.
In ancient times, mandrills were described as terrifying forest monsters, but in fact, they were just an ape found in the forests of Africa.
His face, colorful, and his forehead covered with bone spurs, gave people an eerie and terrifying feeling.
Despite looking like a monkey, it has no connection to a baboon.
In general, the Great Wood Monster lives in Central African countries, such as Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, and this is the African region, which is a warm and humid region, and it is a very suitable area for the Great Wood Monster to live.
They usually inhabit tropical regions with complex landforms.
It is tall, with a large head, a vertebrae from its nose to its head, and a face covered with cyan hair, which contrasts strongly with the bulges on its spine, making it intimidating.
In addition to this, it also comes in many colors, ranging from red to purple, which is rare among other species of monkeys.
A full-fledged male giant baboon can reach up to 25 kg, making it the largest monkey in the world at the moment, on which only a few humans can surpass him.
The females are smaller, about half the size of the males, and this muscular creature is not good at climbing trees, but can run up to 40 kilometers per hour.
The giant baboon is a very common omnivorous organism whose diet includes more than 100 species of vegetables, as well as the eggs of insects, snails and birds.
Under the right circumstances, large mammals, such as porcupines, are preyed upon by large baboons.
Obviously, mandrills are not pure herbivores, and sometimes they eat some meat and protein, which can give them enough nutrients, and perhaps it is because of this that these mandrills are so large and powerful.
In addition, scientists have also found that different eating habits allow the great baboon's intelligence to be fully developed.
In the wild, male giant baboons often fight each other, which is a social behavior. This kind of "play" often develops into a real life-and-death struggle, and can even lead to serious injury.
Moreover, they are known to live in groups, with a group of mandrills usually numbering more than 600 and up to 1,300 at its peak.
Such a large group of creatures, due to the difference in geographical location and food**, will spontaneously divide into several groups, and each group generally has about thirty or fifty mandrills.
Within a tribe, each tribe will elect a "monkey king" to be the leader, and this leader must be good-looking and tall, so that he can be supported by everyone.
They have to contribute to their own race, competing with other creatures in order to gain more territory.
The other male mandrills are not dry eaters, and will take the initiative to become the Monkey King's right-hand man and cronies to defend against foreign forces.
In fact, the position of this monkey king is not very stable, once it encounters the powerful Gongshan Demon, it can be pulled down from the throne.
Similar to other social creatures, the giant baboon has its own breeding period, which is between June and October, during which the male baboon mates with multiple females to produce the next generation.
At this time, the male baboon has a very hot temper and often fights, although it can only last for about ten seconds at a time, but in order to ensure that the female can reproduce, they can continue to mate in large quantities.
Moreover, a pregnant female baboon will give birth after 6 months, at which time, they will also be very irritable.
After 3 years, the baby mandrill will be sexually mature and live alone, while the powerful male will participate in the battle for the next Monkey King.
However, the warlike nature of the great baboons has also led to criticism.
During the mating period, hormone-stimulated large baboons become more ** and bloodier. "The Monkey King" must be alert to potential opponents or he will quickly lose his advantage.
A large baboon that is difficult to tame.
Sure enough, as in mythology, the big baboon is an extremely ** creature.
The fangs and claws, especially the males, are so powerful that even leopards can easily defeat them.
When fighting, it will use its powerful arms and large arms to deal a fatal blow to its opponents.
After a long period of observation of the giant baboon, scientists have concluded that the giant baboon has a very hot temper and will launch a violent attack if stimulated.
Once, a scientific research team strayed into the habitat of the mandrill, which attracted a frenzied attack by a group of mandrills.
Although these researchers are fully armed, they have no way to continue to do scientific research under the continuous attacks of the "Mountain Wood Man".
This forced the scientists to decide to evacuate as a whole, but with their evacuation, the angry Shan Mu Xiao still did not give up, and had to throw the expedition team far away.
Hungry leopards have been seen feeding on small animals and females, but when they see a large adult baboon, they turn around and run.
For a medium-sized carnivorous creature like a leopard, going head-to-head with an adult mandrill is a very risky and wrong thing to do.
What's more, these mountain monsters not only have amazing physical strength, but also can quickly and accurately analyze the situation and make the best response according to various dangerous situations.
There is a record of a lion trying to get close to a mandrill in order to hunt, but when they found their kind gathered together and demonstrated to themselves, they immediately stopped and gave up the hunt.
That's why, scientists conclude, the great baboon is already much more dangerous than other carnivorous creatures, such as jackals.
Therefore, the folk proverb "Rather be a tiger than touch a mandrill" is by no means an exaggeration.
In fact, the fighting habits of the big wooden mandrill are not only to protect their own territory, but to better protect their own territory, and often attack people's villages in groups.
Once the village is short of food, large herds of mandrills will feed on the farmland around the village, and if they encounter people in the village, they will immediately attack, and the scale is far from the so-called "it is better to be with the jackals than with the mandrills". * Fan reward program