Eastern bongo reintroduction in Kenya
The eastern bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci) is among the world’s most endangered large mammals. Due to habitat loss, poaching and disease, its numbers have declined dramatically. Today, the only remaining wild population of these antelopes survives in Kenya’s Aberdare National Park, numbering just thirty to forty individuals.
Eastern bongo. Photo: Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
Prague Zoo has decided to support a programme aimed at strengthening eastern bongo populations in Kenya, in particular through financial support for reforestation. The loss of native forests—together with both legal and, more significantly, illegal hunting, and outbreaks of rinderpest—has been one of the principal causes behind the current critical status of this forest-dependent antelope, despite decades of conservation efforts.
Prague Zoo also funds research and monitoring of eastern bongos at the Mawingu Mountain Bongo Sanctuary. Covering more than 300 hectares of fenced indigenous forest on the slopes of Mount Kenya, the sanctuary provides a safe haven where bongos born in human care are gradually rewilded and become accustomed to life in their natural habitat. The aim is to establish a self-sustaining population, equipped with all the instincts essential for survival in the wild, which could serve as a source for future reintroductions.
The Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, which manages the eastern bongo project, has received over half a million Czech crowns from Prague Zoo by mid-2025. In addition to supporting reforestation, this contribution has also financed camera traps and other monitoring equipment used to track the bongos.
Related articles:
- The Rare and Unique Mountain Bongo
- Two of the World’s Most Beautiful Antelopes Were Born in Prague Zoo
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