Mountain bongos, one of the largest and rarest species of antelope in the world, are endemic to Kenya. However, so few of the animals remain in their native habitat that the Kenyan government has launched an ambitious effort to gather the animals from zoos and conservancies worldwide to restore the species in the wild. As part of the initiative, 17 bongos were recently repatriated from Florida, U.S. On Feb. 23, the forest antelopes were flown from the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation in Florida to the Marania and Mucheene sanctuary, a breeding center for mountain bongos (Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci), in Meru, Kenya. There, they will be quarantined and slowly reintegrated into their natural ecosystem. Kenya began repatriating mountain bongos from the U.S. with an in situ captive breeding program at the Mount Kenya Game Ranch. The initiative has developed several wild-population recovery strategies and in 2004, successfully repatriated the first group of 25 bongos to the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy. “We now have 98 individuals that we are slowly integrating into the natural environment; we are happy that they are now reproducing as we have young ones among them,” Kenya Wildlife Service director-general Erastus Kanga said in a press briefing. According to Kanga, Kenya is home to roughly 100 mountain bongos; that’s a drop from roughly 700 in the 1960s and 1970s. The 17 bongos from Florida will inject much-needed genetic diversity for the species currently listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. “We are excited that they have…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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