The Chaircat’s Blog

Our slightly delayed New Years gift:

A healthy male baby bongo finally made his grand entry.

The arrival of ‘Hamsini‘ marks the 50th Mountain Bongo to join the herd at the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, earmarked for re-introduction to the wild.

We expected the birth to take place around the first of January. but as it were, world attention was focused on less joyous incidents in Kenya.

It was almost as though the mother bongo was waiting for calm amd peace to return to give her own big event the importance it deserves.

So today we introduce to you:

Hamsini, (which means ‘fifty’ in Kiswahili ) born last night, January 12, 2008.

Delivery was difficult as the little bongo had overstayed its normally expected gestation period, he had continued to grow in the safety of his mother’s womb.

With our team watching her closely the mother bongo finally managed the birth with a little of our help which she accepted calmly, gratefully.

After a good night’s quiet and uninterrupted rest for mother and young, both are fine this morning. Hamsini was observed having a first drink from “Mom”.

Mother and young can be seen in the animal orphanage’s suni sanctuary, where they will stay to be pampered for a little while before rejoining the herd.

(You can adopt Hamsini as your own sponsored member of this herd of rare mountain bongo) ….. Just add one or more zeros to his number….

(A donation of $500.00 and up will benefit the herd and bring us closer to the goal of re-populating Mount Kenya with this rare and exquisite species of antelope)