Photo of the Day 469

Mandrill, Central Africa

Photograph by Michael Nichols

A mandrill, tethered on a rope in central Africa, reaches for the camera. These colorful primates are threatened. They are often hunted as bushmeat, and many Africans consider them to be a delicacy. Mandrills are feeling the squeeze of spreading agriculture and human settlement—both are shrinking their rain forest homeland.

(Photo shot on assignment for "Clearing,” March 2001, National Geographic magazine)