Press Release
December 20, 2004 - For Immediate Release

Highly Endangered African Bongo to Call Fossil Rim Home

Bongos, subspecies of African antelope, will be delivered to Fossil Rim Sunday, October 24

One-time photo shoot available until 60-day quarantine period expires

Fossil Rim is proud to announce the arrival of the first new protected species to call the center home in more than 10 years. On December 20 the female mountain bongos, which are part of the species survival plan for this endangered animal, were released into the scenic drive pasture after 60 days of quarantine and acclimation to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. The bongos previously lived at the Oregon Wildlife Foundation.

Mountain bongos are a highly-endangered subspecies of African antelope. The number of wild mountain bongos has plummeted in the past 50 years. Altogether there are probably less than 100 mountain bongos surviving in the wild.

“We’re quite pleased to be expanding our on-site wildlife conservation programming to include this important and striking endangered species," says Bruce Williams, director of operations at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. “We look forward to making a significant contribution to this international collaborative effort to restore mountain bongo to its former range in East Africa,” continues Williams.

FACTS

NAME: The common name bongo has nothing to do with drums. It is thought to be an African tribal name meaning antelope.

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci

RANGE: Kenya (in East Africa)

HABITAT: Dense mountain forests

MYTH: Some native people believed that eating or even touching a live bongo would give them spasms similar to epileptic seizures. This taboo once protected the animals, but is no longer widely held, and bongos are now hunted in great numbers.Efforts are now underway by a large consortium of zoos and conservation facilities to re-establish healthy groups of mountain bongos in the wild. There are currently over 300 mountain bongo residing in North American facilities. With the arrival of the three bongos from Oregon, Fossil Rim proudly joins The Mountain Bongo Repatriation Project, a rare milestone in wildlife conservation which aims to restore a critically endangered flagship species to self-sustaining levels in the wild using the captive U.S. population. In January 2004, after 10 years of planning, the first 18 mountain bongo from the U.S. were successfully relocated to Mount Kenya Game Ranch. The repatriated bongos are founders for a long-term breeding effort at the ranch—their descendants will be gradually acclimated to the wild over future generations.

The wild animals are restricted 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. The secretive habits of wild bongos make them hard to study, but scientists are beginning to learn more about the role they play in their ecosystem. As browsers, they are important in keeping forest vegetation from becoming overgrown. They also serve as a key prey species for leopards and pythons, and sometimes hyenas and lions.

Bongos are also susceptible to disease such as rinderpest (in the 1890s this disease almost exterminated the species). Due to severe poaching, habitat destruction and lion predation from lions that have been introduced to the area, the wild stocks of this species are believed to be close to extinction.

Stripes and Horns
The bongo is the largest of the forest antelopes. Its body is heavily built and stocky. Although a male usually stands no higher than four feet at the shoulder, he can weigh up to 900 pounds.

This beautiful antelope's coat is a glossy, chestnut color, ringed with an average of 12 to 14 narrow white stripes on the shoulders, flanks and hindquarters. The bongo has a dark-and-white crest of hair running the length of the spine, two large white spots on each cheek and often sports a yellowish-white band between the eyes.

The bongo's coloring probably serves to camouflage the animal in its dense forest home, but scientists also think the distinctive stripes may help the antelopes identify one another in their dark habitat.

Bongos have sturdy, spiraled horns that resemble those of their cousins: nyalas, sitatungas, bushbucks, kudus and elands. Bongos are the only spiral-horned antelope in which both sexes have horns, though the males' horns are heavier and longer than the females'. The horns extend up and along the back, giving the animal a "hunched" appearance.

Despite their large horns, bongos can run amazingly fast and gracefully through thick forest cover. They do this by tilting their chin up, causing the horns to lie flat against their back. This happens so frequently that older animals often rub bald spots on their back with the tips of their horns!

Browsing Bongos
Since bongos are large animals, they require a large amount of food each day. So they live only in areas with abundant year-round growth of herbs and low shrubs. That probably accounts for the animal's limited range.

Bongos are browsers. They especially like the tender bushes that grow at the base of trees. They also browse on the leaf tips, shoots, roots and vines of a wide variety of other plants including bamboo, cassava and sweet potato. They use their long, prehensile (grasping) tongue to grasp the vegetation they feed on.

Though bongos prefer browsing on low shrubs, they will sometimes reach for leaves seven to eight feet off the ground. They do this by rearing up on their hind legs and bracing their forelegs against a tree trunk. Bongos can also uproot saplings with their horns to get at the roots.

Not everything a bongo eats is good for its health. The bamboo that serves as one of the animal's major food sources can also pose a deadly threat. After the bamboo plants flower (at intervals of three to 10 years), the plants die back. During the second year of re-growth, the plants become toxic and Bongos are frequently poisoned by the toxic bamboo.

All Ears
As you might expect from an animal with such large ears, bongos have good hearing. They seem to rely more on their sense of hearing than on sight or smell. This helps keep them aware of predators, and keeps them in touch with other bongos in the thick forest.

The animals have only a limited number of vocalizations, mostly grunts and snorts. When they're in distress, they bleat. The females emit a weak, mooing call to contact their young.

Almost Loners
Bongos are mostly nocturnal (active at night), though they occasionally move about during the day. They are shy, timid and easily frightened animals. They either run away quickly after a scare or they seek cover, standing very still, alert and poised to flee.

Bongos don't live in large groups; in fact, they're fairly solitary animals. Mothers and their young form small groups of nursery herds. As the male offspring mature, they leave their maternal groups and live on their own. An adult will occasionally pair-off with another adult male or female, but the animals apparently have no long-lasting bonds.

Adult males who meet in the forest will occasionally use their horns in a ritual sparring contest with each other, but they rarely have a serious fight. The ritual often includes an elaborate display in which the males bulge their necks, roll their eyes and hold their horns in a vertical position, while slowly pacing back and forth in front of the other male.

BACKGROUND: Fossil Rim Wildlife Center is a 1,650 acre not-for-profit 501(c) 3 facility that specializes in captive breeding programs for endangered and threatened species of animals. It is one of the few private facilities that meet the strict standards set for accreditation by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association and is an important player in global efforts to save endangered species. The Center participates in Species Survival Plans (SSPs) for 14 endangered or threatened species Fossil Rim’s research in species propagation is advancing the science of wildlife conservation dramatically and fine-tuning a model of what wildlife preserves will look like in the future. For more information, call 254-897-2960.

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