Mountain Bongo friends
At the end of March we were really honoured to welcome four individuals involved with the future of the critically endangered mountain bongo.
Dr. Robert Aruho is the Head of Mt. Kenya Wildlife Conservancy based in Nanyuki, Kenya. The Conservancy is the custodian of Mawingu Sanctuary – a specific sanctuary for mountain bongo which has just celebrated its first anniversary. He was accompanied by Nick Davis, General Manager of Mammals at Chester Zoo and European studbook keeper for the mountain bongo; Stuart Nixon who is Africa Regional Field Programme Manager at Chester Zoo and Dr. Tommaso Sandri – a Field Conservation Biologist whose PhD research has shed valuable light onto how many mountain bongo there are, where they are, where the best habitat is for a population to thrive, not just to survive
To give context to their visit, the mountain bongo is a species we are passionate about. Edward Pope, founder of Watatunga, was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the opening of Mawingu in 2022.
In May 2021, a mountain bongo calf was born here in Watatunga Wildlife Reserve.Fortuitously, the Escape to the Country team captured incredible footage of it when just a few days old. While the rest of the herd always required supplementary feeding, even in summer, we were excited to note that, being born in a habitat where it could browse and select its own food, the calf did not depend on supplementary feeding in the same way as the rest of the herd. We speculated that this was because its gut may be developing differently and becoming longer than the digestive tract of an animal raised on protein rich pellet. We found this very exciting, and hoped it might be significant should animals from Europe ever be part of the exciting rewilding project at Mawingu Sanctuary in Kenya.
While they were with us, we interviewed our guests and started by asking Robert about the significance of founding Mawingu Sanctuary, and how the first year had been:
Robert: Last year was great – it was the culmination of our efforts to save the mountain bongo with the establishment of the world’s first mountain bongo sanctuary- the Mawingu Sanctuary, in Kenya. We are able now to cover the mountain bongo programme from end to end – previously we’d been breeding these animals, but we were still raising them under human care.
We needed a facility where we could actually rewild these animals to build back their wild instincts. The Kenyan government through the Kenya Wildlife Service, and Kenya Forest Service gave us the space within Mt. Kenya Forest Reserve to establish this sanctuary and now we are able to breed the bongo and then prime them for survival in the wild. At the moment, we already have ten individuals in the Sanctuary, and we’ve recorded a birth, so it’s an exciting time for the mountain bongo.
Watatunga: Turning to Stuart next, could you fill us in on how you’re connected to the project and a bit about your role?
Stuart: My initial connection with Robert was from carrying out a survey of the Semuliki National Park in western Uganda, and actually that survey was one of the first large mammal surveys in that park. It’s one of Uganda’s oldest national parks and we were looking for a number of species to see if they were present, but we were focused on okapi and bongo.
We carried out the survey out over about four months, using camera traps, and we were very excited, because we found tracks. Bongo and okapi tracks are very similar, and actually the dung can be very similar as well. Quite early on in the survey, we found footprints and dung that we thought ‘well, we’ve got one or the other, or maybe both.’
Then, when we got the camera trap results in, we’d got quite a few bongo on camera traps, so that was the first record of lowland bongo in Uganda, so I suppose the first lowland bongo record in East Africa.
Watatunga: How exciting – and Tommy, I think that segways nicely into your research?
Tommy: Yes, from the outset of my PhD, I was always interested in providing new information for the individuals who manage specific species. I knew that the bongo, and particularly the Kenyan subspecies, mountain bongo which Robert works with, was in trouble.
We’ve always known that there are not many – they are limited and their habitat is fragmented. I wanted to find out how many there are, where they are, and which habitat is best for a population to thrive, not just to survive. My PhD was supported by Chester Zoo and I worked in close collaboration with the Kenya Wildlife Service to ensure that the people in charge of the animals in situ had the best information possible.
Robert: And I had seen Tommy’s research before I even set foot at Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy!
Watatunga: It must be very satisfying for all of you to have carried out or had access to a piece of research that then had an opportunity for practical application?
Tommy: Yes, and without a zoo, my PhD, which was so focused on one species, would probably never have happened because big funders are not that interested in single species conservation. They’re more interested in whole landscapes and multiple species. But it has been so useful because we now have methods that we know are successful and which we could apply to a monitoring program in the sanctuary.
Watatunga: So Nick, as European studbook keeper for the mountain bongo, what excites you about this collaboration? You must be very proud that it is coming from your zoo, Chester, as well?
Nick: So obviously, from a zoo’s point of view, our bread and butter is looking after animals in a zoo, and educating people about endangered species.
The bongo is a really interesting case. We’ve got a good sustainable population in European zoos; we’ve got over 180 animals in around 50 zoos. We know that they have been well managed in terms of genetics, so actually there’s an opportunity there, which we’re working on with the potential to send animals back out to Kenya as part of initial translocation, to help the Wildlife Conservancy and again, to help with a bigger picture of reintroducing bongo back into the wild.
Watatunga: This feels to me like a really significant instance of successful international collaboration. In this case, PhD funding has been really targeted and has had a very tangible output. At a time when zoos come in for some bad press, it’s very exciting to be able to highlight this.
Robert: I think that zoos can act with insight when the world is in trouble. So for the mountain bongo, had there not been any animals within the zoos, we would be talking about the future of this species as a looming disaster.
But what has kept hope alive for the mountain bongo is the fact that they existed in abundance in the zoos and were doing well.
So when we wanted to recreate the population of the bongo, the only possible and feasible source was to get animals from the zoos. As a result we have been able to take these animals, begin a breeding and rewilding program, but only because zoos made this opportunity possible.
So I think when you look at the future contribution of the zoo world, it’s not something that we should down play. I think with the issues of climate change setting in, zoos will continue to play a vital role and carry a great responsibility for educating people about how we can save our species and rewild our planet.
Watatunga: So you’ve all seen the site here at Watatunga. Do you think there is a role for Watatunga to play within the conservation of this incredible species and if so, what might it be? Can I start with you Robert?
Robert: I think from the time we started interacting with Watatunga we saw a great opportunity for testing some of the technology, such as tracking devices, that we are developing for the mountain bongo before we run them in the actual field experiments.
Nick: Yes, I think you’ve got a unique environment here. It’s that middle ground between zoos and the wild. So, previously we’ve talked about how the animals behaved in this environment, and returned to more natural behaviours – how they fed, how they interacted with each other.
So, as a potential stopping ground, you know, learning more about how to re-introduce bongo, then I think it’s really exciting.
Watatunga: And Stuart, you’ve been all over the world and been in charge of so many different scientific aspects – camera trapping and so much more – what do you think that we’ve got here that we should be focusing on?
Stuart: I think I would probably repeat a lot of what Nick just said, I think certainly that building resilience within animals, and actually being able to properly see how they behave here as well.
Tommy: I think another dimension is that this could be a training ground for people working on the species, so you could have students coming here and getting a feel of what it means to follow a bongo – to follow the bongo in the thickets in the bush and find them every day and try to monitor them. I would have loved to do that before setting off for Kenya!
It was a real pleasure to have Robert, Stuart, Nick and Tommy here with us, and present Robert’s team with a print of the female bongo and calf born at Watatunga and painted by Ed’s sister, Annabel Pope.
We do not currently have mountain bongo onsite at Watatunga but very much hope to play a part in the future conservation of this phenomenal species.
