By Lynet Otieno
The Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy (MKWC) is set to receive four male mountain bongos from European zoos, in a renewed push to restore one of Africa’s most endangered antelopes.
The planned transfer, led by experts from Chester Zoo in collaboration with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums, marks the first time mountain bongos will be moved from European conservation programs back to Kenya.
In a statement, Chester Zoo said its team spent more than 11 years coordinating a breeding program across European zoos to prepare for such a moment.
The move builds on earlier reintroduction efforts that saw antelopes repatriated from the United States in two major repatriation efforts, first in 2004, with 18 mountain bongos flown from various zoos in North America to Kenya to begin a breeding and rewilding program. A second batch of 17 mountain bongos was repatriated from the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation (RSCF) in Florida, USA, arriving in Kenya in February 2025.
These bongos are descendants of individuals taken from Kenya to the USA in the 1960s and 1970s to create a captive population, and they are being returned to bolster the critically endangered wild population in Kenya.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), mountain bongos were listed as critically endangered in 2016, with just 70–80 adults remaining in the wild, all in Kenya. Although numbers briefly rebounded to about 150 individuals by 2021, Kenya’s latest wildlife census shows a sharp decline to just 66 animals by 2025.
Conservationists attribute the drop to continued habitat loss and poaching pressures, even as gains are made in controlled environments. Captive populations have steadily increased from 54 in 2021 to 93 by 2025, bolstered in part by the earlier U.S. repatriation.
Once the four European males complete rigorous health checks and quarantine procedures, they will be flown to Kenya and closely monitored before being integrated into MKWC’s breeding program.
“These males are a critical component of our rewilding program,” said Robert Aruho, head of conservancy at MKWC. With more than 100 animals now under captive management, he said the focus is on sustained population growth, with a long-term national goal of reaching at least 750 individuals by 2050.
Technology is also playing an increasingly central role. Chester Zoo said it has partnered with Liverpool John Moores University to develop what it describes as the world’s first AI-powered detection system for mountain bongos with camera networks capable of tracking behavior, movement and health in real time without disturbing the animals.
Such advances, combined with international collaboration and lessons from earlier relocations like those from the United States, could help reverse the species’ decline. “These efforts will change the tide for mountain bongos,” said Stuart Nixon, senior manager for Africa field programs at Chester Zoo.
The article has been republished from Mongabay: https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/04/kenya-to-receive-4-mountain-bongos-from-european-zoos/
