By Bernard Gitau
Thermal-imaging tools, night-vision goggles, weapons (including firearms) and associated ammunition, scopes are some of the equipment that helps rangers fights wildlife in Kenya.
But inside the 10,477 hectares Ragati Forest located in Nyeri county on the slopes of Mount Kenya, Raphael Githui, a community ranger is only equipped with a camera trap.
“For the last few years, I have been using cameras to monitor and collect data on wildlife, especially monitoring of the elusive and endangered mountain bongos,” said Githui.
A camera trap is a digital camera connected to an infrared sensor that detects moving objects and snaps them.
The Kenyan mountain bongo is an endangered tragelaphine antelope subspecies, endemic to the Aberdare, Mount Kenya, Cheranganis Hills and the Mau Forests Complex, with only a few individuals left in the Eburu, Maasai Mau and South Western Mau.
Solomon Waciuri, a field officer for the Rhino Ark/ Wilder Institute Calgary Zoo Mountain Forest Conservation Partnership indicates that the last Mountain Bongo was spotted 6 years ago at Ragati Forest.
In Mount Kenya the species was believed to have been extirpated in the early 1990s, but 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.
“We are in the process of establishing a mountain bongo sanctuary here because it is the home of bongos. We have intensified the installation of camera traps to gather information if there are more bongos but unfortunately we have not managed to capture any,” said Waciuri.
Githui reveals that cameras are mounted on trees in the forest preferably on areas frequented by wildlife, including watering points and salt licks.
“We survey the area mostly frequented by wildlife and mount a camera on a tree, preferably the height of above the knee. This helps the camera to capture small and large animals,” said Githui.
Githui reveals that after two months of mounting the camera, they retrieve the memory card and review its content.
“When the weather is conducive, the camera trap can capture at least 2,600 images while during the cold season, we can get at least 600 images,” said Githui.
Some of the most captured wildlife includes elephant, buffalo, leopard, crowned eagle and African clawless otter.
“Some rare species are also captured including Janet cats, honey badger, Giant Forest hog among others,” he added.
Though the aim is to collect data regarding the mountain bongo, they are yet to be captured, hence motivating them to establish a sanctuary for the animal.
Mountain Bongo 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.
The mountain bongo population has declined from approximately 500 individuals in the 1970’s to just under 100 individuals confined to Aberdare, Mount Kenya, Eburu, Maasai Mau and South Western Mau forests.
In 2003, bongo repatriation from the USA was initiated to establish a sustainable, in situ managed bongo population at the Mt. Kenya Game Ranch (MKGR) from which multiple wild-population recovery strategies could evolve.
The principal objective of this project was to establish an in situ captive breeding program, in a natural setting, as the first phase of several conservation steps required to reintroduce mountain bongos to the wild.
The project aimed to re-establish a viable and self-sustaining population in the bongo’s native habitat.
In 2022 the Mawingo Mountain Bongo Sanctuary in 2022 was established marking a historic milestone in the fight for the survival of this subspecies.
Spanning 776 acres, the sanctuary was established in collaboration with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Kenya Forest Service (KFS), and Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy (MKWC), a non-profit organization.
Eight months ago Kenya achieved a remarkable feat by repatriating 10 iconic Mountain Bongos from America to a sanctuary nestled within the Mount Kenya ecosystem.
The arrival of these 10 individuals bolsters the population of Mountain Bongos to 24 at the Mawingu Bongo Sanctuary.
This achievement follows the repatriation of 10 bongos from various zoos in North America in 2014, with the birth of four calves since then.
During the commemorative event, Dr. Erustus Kanga, Director General of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), commended the collaborative efforts between KWS and Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy (MKWC).
Mountain Bongo National Action Plan envisages viable, free-ranging and genetically representative populations of mountain bongo, thriving across intact historic mountain ecosystem ranges, cherished by the Kenyan people and the global community.
The goal is to secure minimum population size for mountain bongo within their ranges in Kenya, to achieve a national population of 730 individuals over the next 50 years.
