NANYUKI, Kenya — With fewer than 100 mountain bongos surviving in Kenya’s forests, a conservancy on the misty slopes of Mount Kenya is accelerating efforts to breed the critically endangered antelope and return it to the wild, targeting a population of 750 by 2050.
The Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy in Nanyuki this month imported four male bongos from the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria via the Czech Republic, supplementing a herd that has grown to 102 since the conservancy’s founding in 2004. The new arrivals, still in quarantine, will interbreed with descendants of 18 bongos originally sent from the United States, a move intended to counteract the risks of inbreeding.
“We want bongos that are not only strong in body, but strong in the genes they pass to the next generation,” said Dr. Robert Aruho, the conservancy’s head.
The reintroduction is the latest step in a multi-decade effort to rescue the species. Thousands of bongos died in disease outbreaks in the 1960s, sharply reducing the population. In the 1980s, conservationist Don Hunt exported 36 of the animals to the United States as an insurance population, with the goal of one day returning them to the wild. In 2004, 18 descendants of that captive group arrived at the newly opened Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, and they have since interbred to form the current herd.
The last wild bongo was seen in Mount Kenya’s forests in 1994. The conservancy released its first 10 bongos back into the wild in 2022, and they now roam among orange climber vines and shrubs that are among their preferred foods. The bongo’s distinctive white stripes can make it surprisingly hard to spot.
“When a bongo stands behind a green bush, they are completely camouflaged, you can never see them,” Aruho said. “They are like ghosts of the forest, you can’t easily see a bongo when it is in the bush.”
Andrew Mulani, the conservancy’s bongo program assistant, said the animals are monitored for months before release to ensure that the shyest individuals are chosen, as docile bongos would be vulnerable to predators. The birth of a fourth wild calf last year was his most fulfilling moment, he said — an indication that the antelope are beginning to thrive on their own.
Caroline Makena, 33, grew up in the Mount Kenya region hearing stories from her grandmother about how the community prized bongos as bushmeat. But she never saw one until she came to work as a gardener at the conservancy.
“I never knew the bongos were this beautiful, and I think my community loved them not just for the meat but because of their beauty,” she said.
The bongo’s slow reproduction — a nine-month gestation period — and its sensitivity to certain plants and weather conditions have made population recovery challenging. The conservancy supplements the animals’ shrub diet with nutrient-rich pellets and continuously works to strengthen their immunity to disease.
Thousands of tourists who visit the conservancy each year marvel at the antelope’s spiraled horns. As the reintroduction effort gains ground, conservationists hope the ghost of the forest becomes a more common sight in Kenya’s highland woods.