Sharjah24 - AFP: The first mountain bongos have been released into a sanctuary beneath Mount Kenya under a world-leading programme to save the extremely rare forest antelopes from certain extinction in the wild.
Two young males on Wednesday joined two other bongos released the day before into the wooded foothills of Africa's second-highest peak, where the iconic antelopes have not been seen in nearly 30 years.
Kenya is the last place where the majestic animals are still found in their native habitat.
Bongos once existed in great numbers but today fewer than 100 are believed to roam Kenya's equatorial forests, and the species is classified as critically endangered.
As wild populations have collapsed, conservationists in Kenya have bred bongos with the aim of returning a select few to nature and giving the vanishing antelopes a shot at survival.
This "rewilding" strategy is daring and difficult -- captive bongos must be totally weaned off humans and the painstaking work of preparing antelopes for the wild has taken nearly 20 years.
"Finally, these bongos are being rewilded," Kenya's minister of tourism and wildlife, Najib Balala, said at the opening of the Mawingu Mountain Bongo Sanctuary near the central town of Nanyuki.
"What a celebration. What a success."
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