Special delivery: Bongos go home

Seventeen critically endangered mountain bongo antelopes boarded a DHL Express plane at Palm Beach International Airport in February. Bound for Kenya, they included five males and 12 females, some of them pregnant. More than cargo, these bongos are the last, best hope for their species.

They know nothing of the statistics — that fewer than 100 of their kind remain in the wild — or the years of planning that led to this moment. To them, it was just a strange, noisy trip. But FIU’s Paul Reillo knows these bongos are the very definition of a second chance.

Reillo is a research professor and director of FIU’s Tropical Conservation Institute. He is also the founding director of the nonprofit Rare Species Conservatory Foundation (RSCF), which operates the facility where the 17 bongos were raised. For years, he worked toward this moment — breeding the animals in semi-wild conditions, tending to their health and wellness alongside his RSCF team. This includes FIU alumnus Matt Morris, RCSF’s operations director and team lead for the mountain bongo. Together, they prepared the bongos for the long journey as best they could, building custom crates to keep them safe and calm during the 36-hour journey to their ancestral home on Mt. Kenya. Reillo found time to do the paperwork. A lot of paperwork. He worked closely with the Meru Bongo and Rhino Conservation Trust to find the bongos a safe place to call home. He worked closely with DHL to secure them safe transport. He worked to raise the funds to make this moment happen. For this species’ last chance at survival, he worked.

“There is simply no higher calling for humanity than to protect what remains of nature,” Reillo said. “The mountain bongo’s story of decline and recovery has been entirely on our watch, and the species’ future rests with all of us.”

The mountain bongo, the largest forest antelope native only to Kenya, has experienced a devastating population decline in the past 80 years due to poaching, forest degradation and habitat fragmentation. The species is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a critically endangered sub-species. The conservation effort aims to help them breed so that their offspring can be sustainably reintroduced into Mount Kenya’s forests.

The 17 bongos successfully made their journey from Loxahatchee, Florida, to a 30-acre sanctuary on the slopes of Mount Kenya. They are thriving. The plan is to move into an adjacent, expansive reserve that will include critically endangered black rhinos. The work is all being done in collaboration with the Meru County Government, Ntimaka and Kamulu Community Forest Associations, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya Forest Service and Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. RSCF is an organizational trustee of the Meru Bongo and Rhino Conservation Trust, overseeing the bongo and rhino sanctuary.

This is the second time Reillo has sent bongos to Kenya, the first being in 2004. He hopes to repatriate more in the very near future. For him, this is just another step in the species’ fight for survival. For him, the work continues.