Seventeen critically endangered mountain bongo antelopes were transported from Florida to Kenya in February, as part of a conservation effort led by Paul Reillo, a research professor at Florida International University (FIU) and director of the university’s Tropical Conservation Institute. The animals, which included five males and twelve females—some pregnant—departed Palm Beach International Airport aboard a DHL Express flight bound for their ancestral home on Mount Kenya.
The relocation was the result of years of planning by Reillo and his team at the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation (RSCF), a nonprofit organization he founded that manages the facility where the bongos were bred in semi-wild conditions. FIU alumnus Matt Morris, RSCF’s operations director and team lead for the mountain bongo, played a key role in preparing the animals for travel. Custom crates were built to keep them safe during the 36-hour journey.
Reillo coordinated with multiple partners including DHL Express, Meru Bongo and Rhino Conservation Trust, Meru County Government, Ntimaka and Kamulu Community Forest Associations, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya Forest Service and Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. He also managed logistics such as paperwork and fundraising to ensure the transfer could take place.
“There is simply no higher calling for humanity than to protect what remains of nature,” Reillo said. “The mountain bongo’s story of decline and recovery has been entirely on our watch, and the species’ future rests with all of us.”
Mountain bongos are native only to Kenya but have suffered severe population declines over the last 80 years due to poaching, habitat loss, forest degradation and fragmentation. Fewer than 100 remain in the wild according to recent estimates. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists them as critically endangered.
Upon arrival in Kenya from Loxahatchee, Florida, the seventeen bongos were released into a 30-acre sanctuary on Mount Kenya’s slopes where they are reported to be thriving. Plans call for eventual relocation into an adjacent larger reserve that will also house critically endangered black rhinos. The ultimate goal is sustainable reintroduction of offspring into Mount Kenya’s forests.
This marks Reillo’s second effort sending bongos back to their native habitat—the first took place in 2004—and he hopes more can follow soon.
“There is simply no higher calling for humanity than to protect what remains of nature,” Reillo said. “The mountain bongo’s story of decline and recovery has been entirely on our watch, and the species’ future rests with all of us.”
For Reillo and his collaborators at FIU’s Tropical Conservation Institute and RSCF, efforts continue toward ensuring survival for this rare antelope species.
