NAIROBI, Kenya July 18 – Nanyuki-based Fairmont Mt Kenya Safari Club is back in business with a renewed focus on conservation of the Mountain Bongo.
The property which sits within the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy(MKWC) has so far increased the number of endangered Mountain bongos from 18 to 66.
The bongo is a critically endangered Tragelaphus Antelope subspecies endemic to the Aberdare, Mount Kenya, Eburu and the Mau forests in Kenya.
This rare and most beautiful Kenyan antelope is listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Categories and criteria of species at high risk of global extinction and has seen its population decline due to unrestricted hunting, poaching, habitat loss, and diseases.
According to the recent National Wildlife Census in Kenya, approximately less than 100 Mountain Bongos are left in the wild.
IUCN predicts that this number is likely to continue declining unless deliberate actions to address the threats are put in place. This, therefore, calls for consorted hastened efforts to reinforce the wild population before it is too late.
Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy took on the daunting challenge of reversing this impending extinction of the Mountain Bongo in 2004 and started the breeding and rewilding program of the Mountain bongo in Kenya.
18 Mountain Bongo were repatriated from several zoos across North America as a first step. These originally human habituated Mountain Bongos have gone through a series of adaptations to the local conditions of Kenya.
They have bred successfully, thus establishing themselves as the hope population recovery for the Mountain Bongo.
According to Dr. Robert Aruho, Head of Conservation at MKWC it may not be practically feasible to increase the population in the wild through improved protected area management only, tis can only be done together with ex-situ breeding and reintroduction within local conditions to raise enough numbers to assist the wild populations to recover.
“For this reason, in 2014, we introduced the Mountain Bongos to a pristine forest environment to rebuild their wild instincts resulting in a significant positive upturn for the breeding program,” said Aruho.
Aruho noted that to date, all Mountain Bongos are in wild forest areas, and their instincts are progressively rebuilding.
Fairmont Mt Kenya Safari reopened its doors on July 5 after a two-year closure which was necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
