The Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy is celebrating 20 years of conservation this year.
The Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy has worked to protect endangered species and their habitats with a focus on the endangered Mountain Bongo Antelope through a recovery and rewilding program.
2024 marks 20 years since the importation of 18 Mountain Bongos acquired from several zoos across North America and received at Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy (MKWC) in Nanyuki. This was the beginning of the breeding and rewilding program to create a robust population of Mountain Bongo. This has been in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service and the Kenya Forest Service, with the support of the Kenyan Government.
The importation of the Mountain Bongos, known as the Bongo Repatriation Project, was triggered by the worrying decline of this antelope in the wild whose population had fallen. These Bongos existed in severely fragmented geographic segments in Mount Kenya and Aberdares, which presented limited opportunity for the species to recover naturally.
The Conservancy’s pioneering work dates back to 1964 when Government of Kenya expressed growing concern for the dwindling Mountain Bongo numbers in Mount Kenya and Aberdares. Don Hunt, the then Director of Mount Kenya Game Ranch and founder of the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, proposed to the Government of Kenya that they should send some Mountain Bongos to American zoos as insurance for the species so that if the situation in the wild became dire, the Mountain Bongos would not become extinct but could be returned when the conditions were right. Based on this proposal, the Government granted him permission to export 36 Bongos to the USA. These Bongos bred successfully and became the founder animals that we see across zoos in the United States. When the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy was established in 2004, 18 Mountain Bongos were repatriated from the USA to kick off the Mountain Bongo breeding and rewilding program. These originally human habituated Mountain Bongos have gone through a series of adaptations to the local conditions of Kenya and have bred successfully establishing themselves as the founders and hope for population recovery of this critically endangered antelope.
One of the greatest achievements in the 20-year history of the Conservancy was the opening of the Mawingu Mountain Bongo Sanctuary in 2022. This is Kenya’s and the world’s first Mountain Bongo Sanctuary and is located at the foothills of Mount Kenya.
“10 Mountain Bongos were released in this Sanctuary in its first year. Today, following the birth of three calves in this 776-acre natural forest Sanctuary, there are a total of 13 Mountain Bongos, providing full proof of concept that rewilding the Mountain Bongo in Kenya is not just a possibility but a reality,” notes Dr. Robert Aruho, Head of Conservancy at MKWC.
“MKWC is both a symbol of the inspirational effort of our people and of all that’s left to do. At the heart of our effort is the Mountain Bongo, which is at the verge of extinction, with fewer than 100 individuals left in the wild in Kenya. No species should reach such a precarious state. The Mountain Bongo breeding and rewilding effort, the Animal Orphanage and the Community Conservation Education program work together to both renew the Mount Kenya region and ensure more people join the effort to conserve nature’s beauty and wildlife,” added Dr Aruho.
To commemorate the 20th anniversary, MKWC will host several events, including its annual Trek for the Bongo scheduled for September 2024 which allows hikers and community members from across the globe to summit Mount Kenya, Home of the Mountain Bongo and Africa’s second highest mountain.