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Table of Contents
A herbivorous forest ungulate, the bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus) is characterized for its striking reddish-brown coat, white-yellow stripes, and long, slightly spiralled horns. Native to Africa, these hooved species are considered to be the third-largest antelope in the world.
See the fact file below for more information on the bongo or alternatively, you can download our 21-page Bongo worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information
TAXONOMY
- In 1837, Irish naturalist William Ogilby initially described these species. Its generic name, Tragelaphus, is made up of two Greek words: trag, meaning a goat, and elaphos, a deer. Its specific name, eurycerus, on the other hand, came from combining eurus, meaning widespread, and keras, or an animalβs horn.
- The common name βbongoβ originated from the Kele language of Gabon, and the first distinguished use of the name βbongoβ in English is in 1861.
- They are grouped in two subspecies: T. e. eurycerus, the lowland or western bongo, and the T. e. isaaci, the mountain or eastern bongo only found in the mountains of Kenya.
APPEARANCE
- Bongos have no special secretion glands, so these ungulates depend on scent to locate one another.
- Bongos are among the largest forest antelopes. Their deep chestnut-colored coats sport 10 to 15 bright white-yellow stripes along the back from the base of the neck to the rump, which are useful in camouflage. The coats of females are usually more vibrant than those of males. The eastern bongo tends to be darker in color than its western cousin.
- A white chevron can also be spotted between the eyes, and two large white patches grace both sides of the cheeks. Another white chevron appears where the neck meets the chest.
- Adult males and females are the same in size, standing 3.6 to 4.3 feet at the shoulder and reaching 7.1 to 10.3 feet in length, including a tail of 18 to 26 inches. Females are relatively lighter than males, weighing only around 331 to 518 pounds, compared to males whose weight ranges from 485 to 893 pounds.
- Adults have heavy spiral horns made of keratin that slope over their backs; those of the males appear to be longer and larger. Unlike deer, which have antlers that shed every year, bongos and other antelopes have pointed horns that remain throughout their lives.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND BEHAVIOR
- Similar to other forest ungulates, bongos frequently mingle in large groups. Males, called bulls, are solitary, and females with young reside in groups with six to eight individuals.
- Gestation takes place about 285 days, with one calf per birth. Weaning starts after six months. Bongos reach sexual maturity at 24 to 27 months.
- Although mostly active at night, they are sometimes diurnal. However, just like deer, bongos may display crepuscular behaviors.
- They are shy and easily frightened; after a scare, bongos retreat at considerable speed, and once they reach a safe place, they stay alert and face away from danger, but peek a number of times to check the situation.
- As juvenile males mature and abandon their maternal groups, they most often stay solitary, although there are rare cases when they join an older male. Adult males of similar size or age tend to avoid each other. Occasionally, they meet and spar with their horns in a ritualized approach and it is unlikely for serious fights to occur. However, such fights are typically restrained by visual displays, in which the males project their necks outwards, roll their eyes, and hold their hordes upright while slowly pacing back and forth in front of the other male.
- Males look for females only during mating season.
- When in distress, bongos produce a bleat, or a wavering cry similar to those of sheep and goats. They use a few vocalizations, mostly grunts and snorts. Females create weak mooing contact-call for their young and prefer to make use of traditional calving grounds limited to specific regions, while newborns lie in hiding for about seven days or more, receiving short visits by the mother to suckle.
ECOLOGY
- Bongos reside in tropical jungles with dense undergrowth up to an altitude of 13000 feet in Central Africa, with separated numbers in Kenya, and West African countries, such as Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan.
- They prefer to live in disturbed forest mosaics that supply fresh, low-level green vegetation. They can also thrive in bamboo forests.
- Similar to most forest ungulates, bongos are herbivorous browsers that consume leaves, bushes, vines, bark and pith of rotting trees, grasses, herbs, roots, cereals, and fruits.
- They need salt in their diets and are known to regularly visit natural salt licks. Studies conducted on their feces show that charcoal from trees burnt by lightning is present. This behavior is assumed to be a means of obtaining salt and minerals in their diets.
- Desirable habitats for bongos should have a permanent water source.
POPULATION AND CONSERVATION
- Bongos are vulnerable to diseases such as rinderpest, which almost caused the speciesβ extinction during the 1890s.
- In Kenya, their population has declined and on Mount Kenya, they were extirpated within the last ten years due to illegal hunting with dogs.
- Although bongos are an easy catch for humans using snares, most locals believed that if they ate or touched a bongo, they would have spasms similar to epileptic seizures, a superstition that made bongos less harmed in their native ranges.
- The IUCN Antelope Specialist Group classifies the western bongo to be at lower risk or nearly threatened, and the eastern bongo to be critically endangered. Threats such as human-environmental interaction, hunting, and illegal action towards wildlife posed serious threats to bongos.
Bongo Worksheets
This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the bongo across 21 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Bongo worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus) which is characterized for its striking reddish-brown coat, white-yellow stripes, and long, slightly spiralled horns. Native to Africa, these hooved species are considered to be the third-largest antelope in the world.
Complete List Of Included Worksheets
- Bongo Facts
- Breathtaking Bongo
- Bongo Anatomy
- Life Stages
- Test Yourself
- Two Subspecies
- Other Even-Toed Ungulates
- Bongo Wiki
- Antelope Cousins
- A Bongo Poem
- Word Search
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Link will appear as Bongo Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, June 6, 2021
Use With Any Curriculum
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