Facts about a...
Bongo Tragelaphus eurycerus
The mountain bongo is an endangered subspecies of antelope that lives only in a few pockets of mountain forests in Kenya. It is such a rare animal that it has not been seen in much of its natural habitat in nearly a decade.
The Bongo is a browser and help in keeping forest vegetation from becoming overgrown. Although they are preyed by leopards, pythons, hyenas and lions, their most serious predators are people living near forests.
The wild Bongos are endemic to three small sub-populations in Kenya: Aberdares Conservation Area, the Mau Forest and Mt. Kenya National Park. Altogether there are probably less than 100 mountain bongos surviving in the wild.
Conservation efforts are underway to use these captive stocks to replenish part of the Mountain Bongo's wild habitat. The Saint Louis Zoo is one of 13 zoos and conservation organizations in the U.S. that has recently sent captive-born mountain bongos to Kenya.
Facts about the Bongo:
The Bongo is a browser and help in keeping forest vegetation from becoming overgrown. Although they are preyed by leopards, pythons, hyenas and lions, their most serious predators are people living near forests.
The wild Bongos are endemic to three small sub-populations in Kenya: Aberdares Conservation Area, the Mau Forest and Mt. Kenya National Park. Altogether there are probably less than 100 mountain bongos surviving in the wild.
Conservation efforts are underway to use these captive stocks to replenish part of the Mountain Bongo's wild habitat. The Saint Louis Zoo is one of 13 zoos and conservation organizations in the U.S. that has recently sent captive-born mountain bongos to Kenya.
Facts about the Bongo:
- Bongos are endemic to Kenya.
- They are critically endangered animals. Altogether there are probably less than 100 mountain bongos surviving in the wild. About 300 are in captivity in zoos in US alone
- Male bongos seek out adult females only at breeding season
- After mating, a female is pregnant for about 285 days (9 ½ months).
- Births usually take place in December and January. They give birth to a single calf that is weaned at 6 months.
- They reach sexual maturity at 24–27 months (height is about 4 ft, weigh up to 900lbs)
- Adults of both sexes are similar in size and have heavy spiral horns, which last their whole lifespan, with the males being longer and more massive
- They are fairly solitary animals although mothers and their young form small groups or nursery herds
- Has glossy, chestnut color, ringed with an average of 12 to 14 narrow white stripes on the shoulders, flanks and hindquarters that help camouflage them from their enemies.
- The bongo has a dark-and-white crest of hair running the length of the spine, and often sports a yellowish-white band between the eyes, and two large white spots on each cheek.
- Bongos are herbivorous animals. Sometimes they eat dirt, as well as pieces of burned wood to obtain salt.
- Some native people used to believe that eating or even touching a live bongo would give them spasms similar to epileptic seizures. This taboo once protected the animals, but it is no longer widely held, and bongos are now hunted in great numbers.
