The eastern bongo is a subspecies of bongo, a chestnut coloured antelope with white vertical stripes and twisted horns.
The eastern bongo is a subspecies of bongo, a chestnut coloured antelope with white vertical stripes and twisted horns.
Eastern bongos are native to Central Kenya where they are only found in four isolated populations in the mountainous forests.
Bongos can live up to 19 years in the wild.
Bongos are browsing on forest vegetation, and they also peel bark off trees.
Herd
African Plains
Lowland or Western Bongo
Mammalia
Cetartiodactyla
The bongo is the largest and heaviest forest antelope.
Bongos raise their chins when running through dense forest to keep their horns out of the way, and the horns can cause bald patches on their backs.
There are thought to be only 70-80 individual eastern bongos left in the wild/
Bongos are very shy and elusive, and are generally solitary animals, although females can sometimes be found in small groups.
Calf
9 months
1
15 kg
Up to 1.4 m shoulder height; 250 - 450 kg
Eastern bongos are classified as Critically Endangered by the International Union of Conservation in Nature (IUCN) due to habitat loss, hunting, increased predator populations in Kenya (lions) and diseases transferred from domestic animals.
70-80 (decreasing)
Habitat loss through illegal logging, increased hunting, increase in predator population (lions), diseases transferred from domestic animals.
Dublin Zoo provided funding for the Bongo Surveillance Project in central Kenya, which monitors the Bongo population, promotes habitat preservation in cooperation with the local communities and runs wildlife clubs. Dublin Zoo also participates in the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme for Eastern bongos.
A bongo is a type of antelope.
A bongo is an ungulate, which means that they have hooves. They are even-toed, i.e. they have two toes/hooves.
There are only an estimated 70-80 Eastern Bongos left in the wild.
Expanding agriculture is reducing their habitat and is also bringing them increasingly in contact with domestic animals, from whom they contract diseases. They are also hunted for their meat and their horns.
The striped coat helps to camouflage them in the dappled forest light, and it may also help to identify each other in the dark forest light.
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