Sometimes they come back, even if they are the grandchildren... this could be the title of a story, hopefully with a happy ending, about the safeguarding of an endangered species, on the United States-Kenya axis.
The mountain bongo is a striped antelope native only to the ecosystem of Mount Kenya. There are very few of them left, less than 100 according to the Kenya Wildlife Service.
So the State of Florida has decided to repatriate the descendants of some of the specimens that were taken overseas by the Americans in the 1960s, and return them to Meru County, distributing them in some conservancies, to allow them to readapt to the different climate and ecosystem and then hopefully reproduce. Once integrated into the ecosystem, the 17 specimens that arrived from the United States should be able to generate new families, thus saving themselves from extinction. Others should return to the land of their ancestors in the coming months.
‘As we increase the mountain bongo population, we anticipate an increase in the number of tourists and revenue for Kenya. Together, we are building a sustainable future for our wildlife and our communities,’ reads a statement from the KWS, which aims to increase the bongo population to 700 by 2050, as reported by the Minister of Tourism and Wildlife, Rebecca Miano.