How are we preserving the Mountain Bongo?

In 2004, 14 mountain bongo from the USA were repatriated back to Kenya with the aim of establishing a sustainable mountain bongo breeding program at the Mt. Kenya Wildlife Conservancy (MKWC), The principal objective of this project was to improve the genetic diversity of the MKWC population as the first phase of several conservation steps required prior to the reintroduction of mountain bongos to their natural habitats by the National Bongo Taskforce.This reintroduction will aims at establishing a viable and sustainable population in Mountain Bongo's native habitat and remove this species from the IUCN critically endangered species.

The government, through KWS, recognizes the need to conserve the Mountain Bongo habitat being the water towers of Kenya and various measures have been put in place, such as: Fencing of the Aberdare, Mt. Kenya and Eburu forests, strict reinforcement of antipoaching policies as well as anti-logging laws, engaging armed and experienced rangers to man the forest as well supporting community-based projects and education aimed at sensitizing people on the need to conserve the Mountain Bongo.

About The Mountain Bongo

The Mountain Bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci) is a critically endangered tragelaphine antelope sub-species endemic to the Aberdare, Mount Kenya, Cherangani Hills and the Mau Forests Complex, with only a few individuals left in the Eburu, Maasai Mau and South-western Mau.

The species has undergone a drastic decline in all these forests with limited information on the exact number of animals, though inferential figures stand at less than 100 individuals mainly confined to the Aberdare and Maasai Mau.

In Mount Kenya Forest, the species was believed to have been extirpated in the early 1990s, but Bongo Surveillance Program (BSP) reported, sightings and obtained camera trap images of Mountain Bongo near Chehe and Ragati forest blocks. The decline of the bongo antelope is attributed to various causes, namely: habitat fragmentation, poaching, predation pressure, disease, and other human factors.

About the Mawingu Mountain Bongo Sanctuary

The Mawingu Mountain Bongo Sanctuary is a fundamental element of the National Recovery and Action Plan for the Mountain Bongo 2019 – 2023 and is the next step in the re-wilding process for the Mountain Bongo as part of the MKWC breeding program. MKWC aim is to support the National Bongo Task Force in the reintroduction of the Mountain Bongo to indigenous habitats such as Ragati, Eburu, Mau and Aberdares forests and to remove the Mountain Bongo from the IUCN critically endangered species by achieving a sustainable population in its native habitats.