• The bongos were released on March 9. Less than 100 are left in the wild.
Image: ENOS TECHE
The five mountain bongos that were released into the wild earlier this year are adapting well, a vet has said.
The bongos were released on March 9. Less than 100 are left in the wild.
The bongos were moved from their breeding place to their new home-the Mawingu Mountain Bongo Sanctuary. Those translocated included a sub-adult female called Danni.
The other four were Karama (adult male), Hillary (sub-adult male), Owingo (sub-adult male) and Kavu (sub-adult female).
Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy head of veterinary services Dr Robert Aruho told the Star on the phone on Monday that the bongos are adapting well.
“We keep monitoring them and they are fine. They can feed and find water on their own,” Aruho said on the phone.
Aruho said the five were moving in groups.
Before the bongos were moved, they were first immobilised.
Tourism CS Najib Balala, Kenya Forest Service chief conservator Julius Kamau and Kenya Wildlife Service senior veterinary officer Isaac Lekolool attended the rewilding drive.
Mountain Bongo is shy and skittish. It is found in thick forests thus difficult to be sighted and counted.
Most of the sightings are opportunistic and use indirect methods such as dung.
Most of them were exported to the US in the 1960s and the numbers were very low.
Eighteen bongos were repatriated to Kenya in 2004. They are now 64.
By 2019, almost 77 bongos were in the sanctuary but because of weather and limited space, some of them died.
This compelled the government to have an action plan to save the species from going extinct.
The sanctuary where the bongos are is a 776-acre game ranch donated by the Kenya Forest Service.
Under the project, three paddocks are being opened gradually until there is full rewilding.
Those being released to 100 acres are monitored and given supplements until they get used to the environment.
As bongos adapt to the new place, fences will be pulled down to increase the area in which they will be roaming.
Once they have fully adapted to the environment, another 400 acres will be opened and eventually the entire 776 acres.
Some Sh110 million has been put into the project and each year Sh62 million is spent as recurrent expenditure.
With the sanctuary operational, Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy and its partners will have the facilities to complete the mountain bongo reintroduction end-to-end.
Every subsequent year, an additional 10 mountain bongos will be translocated into the sanctuary in groups of five every six months.
Individual mountain bongos to join the sanctuary will be selected from the breeding herds and allowed to roam and mate randomly in the sanctuary.
It is estimated that by 2025, the sanctuary will have 50-70 fully rewilded mountain bongos.
The mountain bongo is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group (IUCN, 2003).
In Kenya, bongos are accorded full protection under the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, 2013.
Kenya has developed the 1st National Recovery and Action Plan for the Mountain Bongo in Kenya (2019-2023).
Edited by A.N