Bongo  (Tragelaphus eurycerus)

Poaching and illegal trapping for food and skins, combined with habitat destruction, have resulted in the decline of bongo populations (3) (8), and even their complete elimination in some areas (6). Large scale and unrestricted hunting with dogs and snares has had a particularly strong impact on the eastern bongo subspecies (6), which, together with lion predation and an outbreak of rinderpest in the 1980s, has decimated the wild population, leaving a mere 100 estimated individuals remaining (5) (8).

Fortunately, there has been concerted conservation effort over recent decades to help protect the endangered eastern bongo subspecies. Remaining wild bongos are currently fully protected by the Kenyan Wildlife Service, and in an attempt to protect the dwindling Aberdares population, the Park Service culled 200 lions from the Aberdares Conservation Area in April 2000 (5). A robust captive population of 526 individuals (as of December 2003) flourishes in over one hundred locations around the world, and captive stock have now begun to be used in a crucial and collaborative reintroduction project known as the Bongo Repatriation Program (5) (8). In January 2004, the first captive stock was moved from America to Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, where the animals form a core breeding group, producing offspring that will eventually be released into the Mount Kenya World Heritage Site (5). In 2006, the entire herd at the Conservancy numbered 36, and three additional adult males were released on Mount Kenya (9). The success of the reintroduction of the above specimens into the wild is currently uncertain. However, while the future of the wild eastern bongo still remains uncertain, the healthy captive population is sure to play a key role in the fate of this subspecies, by providing a reservoir of animals that could be reintroduced into the wild, where they truly belong (5).