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Bongo (antelope)

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Mammals

                      iBongo

                             Conservation status

   Near Threatened (LR/nt)
            Scientific classification

   Kingdom:   Animalia
   Phylum:    Chordata
   Subphylum: Vertebrata
   Class:     Mammalia
   Order:     Artiodactyla
   Family:    Bovidae
   Subfamily: Bovinae
   Genus:     Tragelaphus
   Species:   T. eurycerus

                                Binomial name

   Tragelaphus eurycerus
   Ogilby, 1837

   The Bongo, Tragelaphus eurycerus, is a large African forest antelope
   species. It is characterized by a striking reddish coat, black and
   white markings, prominent colours and long slightly spiral horns.

Taxonomy

   The Bongo belongs to the genus Tragelaphus, which includes the
   Sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekeii), the Nyala (Tragelaphus angasii), the
   Bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus), the Mountain Nyala (Tragelaphus
   buxtoni), the Lesser Kudu (Tragelaphus imberbis) and the Greater Kudu
   (Tragelaphus strepsiceros).

   A Bongo is further catalogued into one of the two subspecies:
   Tragelaphus eurycerus eurycerus, the lowland or "Western Bongo" and the
   far more rare Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci, the mountain or "Eastern
   Bongo" isolated to North-Eastern Central Africa. There are two other
   subspecies from West and Central Africa, taxonomic clarification not
   withstanding. Their life span up to 19 years in observation.

   The scientific name of the Bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus) is acquired
   from Greek words. "Tragelaphus" is derived from the Greek words "Trago"
   (a he-goat), and "elaphos" (a deer), in combination referring to "an
   antelope". The word "Eurycerus" is originated from the fusion of
   "eurus" (broad, widespread) and "keras" (an animal's horn). Bongo is an
   African native name.

   Bongos are one of the largest of the forest antelopes, and are
   considered by many to be the most beautiful of all antelopes. In
   addition to the deep chestnut colour of their coats, bongos have bright
   white stripes on their sides to help camouflage them from their
   enemies.

   Gestation is approximately 285 days (9.5 months) with 1 young per birth
   with weaning at 6 months. Sexual maturity is at 24 to 27 months. Adults
   of both genders are similar in size. Adult height is about 1.1 to 1.3 m
   (3' 8"-4' 3") and length is 1.7 to 2.5 m (5' 8"-8' 3"). Females weigh
   around 210 to 235 kg (460 to 520 lb) while males weigh around 240 to
   405 kg (530 to 895 lb). Both sexes have heavy spiraling horns; those of
   the male are longer and more massive. All bongos in captivity are from
   the isolated Aberdere Mountain portion of the species’ range in central
   Kenya.

Physical characteristics and information

Distribution

   Bongos are found in dense tropical jungles with dense undergrowth up to
   an altitude of 4,000 m (12,800 ft) in central Africa, with isolated
   populations in Kenya, and western Africa. Countries: Angola, Benin
   [regionally extinct?], Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African
   Republic, Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire,
   Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana. Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya
   (the only place where the Eastern Bongo are found in the wild),
   Liberia, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo [regionally extinct?]
   and Uganda [regionally extinct] (IUCN, 2002).

Habitat

   Historically bongos were found in three disjunct parts of Africa.
   Evolved for a life in dense forest, jungle and bamboo thickets, one
   population, the eastern/mountain bongo, is native to the Aberdere
   Mountains of central Kenya (from which all zoo-held bongos originate).
   The second is from Central Africa and the third is from West Africa.
   Today all three populations’ ranges have shrunk in size due to habitat
   loss for agriculture and uncontrolled timber cutting as well as
   poaching for meat.

Coat and body

   The bongo has the most beautiful and dazzling coat of all antelopes.
   Its rich and brilliant body sports a bright auburn colour, but the
   neck, chest and legs are generally darker than the rest of the body.
   Coats of male bongos become darker and buffy as they age until it
   results in a dark mahogany-brown colour. Coats of female bongos are
   usually more brightly coloured than males'. The pigmentation in the
   coat rubs off quite easily with anecdotal reports that rain running off
   a bongo has been noticed to run red with pigment.

   A bongo's smooth coat is accented with an average of ten to fifteen
   vertical and white-yellow torso stripes that run from the base of the
   neck down to the rump. The narrow stripes travel down the sides of the
   bongo, but the number of stripes on each side is rarely the same. The
   bongo has a short, bristly and vertical brown ridge of hair with
   slender white stripes that extends along the shoulder to the rump.

   A white chevron appears between the eyes and two large white spots
   grace each cheek.

   The large ears are believed to sharpen hearing, and the distinctive
   coloration may help bongos identify one another in their dark forest
   habitats. Bongos have no special secretion glands and so rely less on
   scent to find one another than do other similar antelopes.

   The lips of a bongo are white, topped with a black muzzle.

Horns

   Bongos have two heavy and slightly spiralled horns that slope over
   their back and like in many other antelope species, both the male and
   female bongos have horns. Bongos are the only Tragelaphid in which both
   sexes have horns. The horns of bongos are in the form of a lyre and
   bear a resemblance to those of the related antelope species of nyalas,
   sitatungas, bushbucks, kudus and elands.

   Unlike deer, which have branched antlers that they shed annually,
   bongos and other antelopes have pointed horns that they keep throughout
   their lifespan. Males have massive backswept horns while females have
   smaller, thinner and more parallel horns. The size of the horns range
   between 75 and 99 centimetres (30 to 39 in). The horns twist once. Like
   all other horns of antelopes, the core of a bongo's horn is hollow and
   the outer layer of the horn is made of keratin, the same material that
   makes up human fingernails, toenails and hair. The Bongo runs
   gracefully, and at full speed through even the thickest tangles of
   lianas, laying its heavy spiraled horns on its back so that the brush
   cannot impede its flight. Bongos are hunted for their horns by humans.

Social organization and behaviour

   Like other forest ungulates, bongos are seldom seen in large groups.
   Males tend to be solitary and groups of females with young seem to live
   in groups of 6 to 8. Bongos have seldom been seen in herds of more than
   20. The preferred habitat of this species is so dense and difficult to
   operate in that few Europeans or Americans observed this species until
   the 1960’s. Current living animals derive solely from Kenyan
   importations made during the period 1969-1978.

   As young males mature, they leave their maternal groups. Adult males of
   similar size or age seem to try to avoid one another, but occasionally
   they will meet and spar with their horns in a ritualized manner.
   Sometimes serious fights will take place, but they are usually
   discouraged by visual displays, in which the males bulge their necks,
   roll their eyes and hold their horns in a vertical position while
   slowly pacing back and forth in front of the other male. Younger mature
   males most often remain solitary, although they sometimes join up with
   an older male. They seek out females only at mating time; when they are
   with a herd of females, males do not coerce them or try to restrict
   their movements as do some other antelopes.

   Although bongos are mostly nocturnal, they are occasionally active
   during the day. They are timid and easily frightened. They will move
   away after a scare, running at considerable speed, even through dense
   undergrowth. They seek cover, where they stand very still and alert,
   facing away from the disturbance and turning their heads from time to
   time to check on the situation. The bongo's hindquarters are less
   conspicuous than the forequarters, and from this position the animal
   can quickly flee.

   When in distress the bongo emits a bleat. It uses a limited number of
   vocalizations, mostly grunts and snorts. The females have a weak,
   mooing contact call for their young.

   Females prefer to use traditional calving grounds restricted to certain
   areas. The newborn calf lies out in hiding for a week or more,
   receiving short visits by the mother to suckle it. The calves grow
   rapidly and can soon accompany their mothers in the nursery herds.
   Their horns also grow rapidly and begin to show in 3 1/2 months.

Diet

   Bongos are herbivorous, like many other forest ungulates. A large
   animal, the Bongo requires an ample amount of food, and is therefore
   quite restricted to suitable areas with abundant year-round growth of
   herbs and low shrubs. Such restrictions may account for the animal's
   limited distribution.

   Bongos are browsers and feed primarily on the leaves of trees, bushes,
   vines, bark and pith of rotting trees, grasses, herbs, roots, cereals,
   shrubs and fruits. Bongos need salt in their diet. Indeed, bongos are
   known to regularly visit natural salt licks. They have been known to
   eat burned wood after lightning storms; this behaviour is believed to
   be a means of getting salts and minerals into their diet (See Animal
   Diversity link 2). Suitable habitat must have permanent water
   available.

Threats to survival

Population

   Few estimates of population density are available. Assuming average
   population densities of 0.25 animals per km² in regions where it is
   known to be common or abundant, and 0.02 per km² elsewhere, and with a
   total area of occupancy of 327,000 km², a total population estimate of
   approximately 28,000 is suggested. Only about 60% are in protected
   areas, suggesting that actual numbers of the lowland subspecies may
   only be in the low tens of thousands. In Kenya, their numbers have
   declined significantly and on Mt. Kenya, they were extirpated within
   the last decade due to illegal hunting with dogs. Although information
   on their status in the wild is lacking, lowland bongos are not
   presently considered endangered.

   Bongos are susceptible to disease such as rinderpest (in the 1890s this
   disease almost exterminated the species). It has been observed that the
   Tragelaphus eurycerus may suffer from Goiter (C. A. Schiller et al,
   Department of Pathology, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian
   Institution, Washington DC, USA. Veterinary Pathology, Vol 32, Issue 3
   242-249). Over the course of the disease, the thyroid glands greatly
   enlarge (up to 10 x 20 cm) and became polycystic. C. A. Schiller et al
   (cited above) concluded that the pathogenesis of goiter in the Bongo
   may reflect a mixture of genetic predisposition coupled with
   environmental factors, including a period of exposure to a goitrogen.

   Leopards, Spotted Hyenas, Lions, and Humans prey on them for their
   pelts, horns and meat; Pythons sometimes eat bongo calves.

   Bongo populations have been greatly reduced by hunting and snares,
   although some bongo refuges exist. Although Bongos are quite easy for
   humans to catch via snares; it is of interest that many people native
   to the Bongos habitat believed that if they ate or touched Bongo they
   would have spasms similar to epileptic seizures. Because of this
   superstition Bongos were less harmed in their native ranges than
   expected. However, these taboos are said no longer to exist and that
   may account for increased hunting by humans in recent times.

Zoo programs

   An international studbook is maintained to help manage animals held in
   captivity. Because of its bright colour, it is very popular in zoos and
   private collections. In North America, there are thought to be over 400
   individuals, a population that probably exceeds that of the mountain
   bongo in the wild.

   In 2000, the American Zoo and Aquarum Association ( AZA) upgraded the
   Bongo to a Species Survival Plan (SSP) Participant - which works to
   improve the genetic diversity of managed animal populations. The target
   population for participating zoos and private collections in North
   America is 250 animals. Through the efforts of zoos in North America, a
   reintroduction to the population in Kenya is being developed.

Conservation

   The western/lowland Bongo faces an ongoing population decline as
   habitat destruction and meat hunting pressures increase with the
   relentless expansion of human settlement. Its long-term survival will
   only be assured in areas which receive active protection and
   management. At present, such areas comprise about 30,000 km²., and
   several are in countries where political stability is fragile. There is
   therefore a realistic possibility that its status could decline to
   Threatened in the near future.

   As the largest and most spectacular forest antelope, the
   western/lowland Bongo is both an important flagship species for
   protected areas such as national parks, and a major trophy species
   which has been taken in increasing numbers in Central Africa by sport
   hunters during the 1990’s. Both of these factors are strong incentives
   to provide effective protection and management of western/lowland bongo
   populations. Trophy hunting has the potential to provide economic
   justification for the preservation of larger areas of bongo habitat
   than national parks, especially in remote regions of Central Africa
   where possibilities for commercially successful tourism are very
   limited (Wilkie and Carpenter 1999).

   The eastern/mountain Bongo’s survival in the wild is dependent on more
   effective protection of the surviving remnant populations in Kenya. If
   this does not occur, if will eventually become extinct in the wild. The
   existence of a healthy captive population of this subspecies offers the
   potential for its reintroduction. The total number of mountain Bongos
   held in captivity in North America alone may already be similar to or
   exceed the total number remaining in the wild.

Legal status

   In 2002 the IUCN, listed the species as "low risk/near threatened".
   This may mean that Bongos may be endangered due to human environmental
   interaction as well as hunting and illegal actions towards wildlife.
   Bongos are becoming extinct and endangered due to hunters.

   CITES lists bongo as an Appendix III species, only regulating their
   exportation from a single country, Ghana. It is not protected by the
   U.S. Endangered Species Act and is not listed by USFWS.

   The IUCN Antelope Specialist Group considers the western or lowland
   bongo, T. e. eurycerus, to be Lower Risk (Near Threatened), and the
   eastern or mountain bongo, T. e. isaaci, of Kenya to be Endangered.
   Other subspecific names have been used but their validity has not been
   tested.

Gallery

   Bongo at Louisville Zoo.

   Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci Bongo at the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bongo_%28antelope%29"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
