The world’s mountain bongo population has declined to the point of imminent extinction. Illegal hunting for its cream-striped russet coat and spiral horns, along with habitat loss and diseases associated with cattle (like rinderpest) are all to blame. There are now over four times as many mountain bongos in captive facilities in Europe and the USA than there are in Kenya – the last wild refuge for this critically endangered antelope. But an ambitious breeding and rewilding programme at the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, near Nanyuki, aims to boost the country’s population of 150 remaining individuals., the conservancy’s manager, about Kenya’s campaign to save this rarest and most beautiful of African antelopes.
