Bongo is the largest and the heaviest African forest antelope. It has a chestnut coat with distinctive vertical whitish-yellow stripes running down its sides. Both males and females have spiral, lyre-shaped horns.
It is herbivorous and nocturnal. Its predators are lions, hyenas, leopards and pythons. It wallows in the mud to decrease its body temperature during the warmer periods of the year.
Bongos produce snorts, grunts and bleating noise when they are distressed. Females produce mooing calls for communication with their offspring. Mating season of bongos takes place between October and January.
Pregnancy in females lasts 9 months and ends with one baby. Female leaves the herd to give birth in secluded area. Baby remains hidden in dense vegetation during the first week of its life, before it becomes ready to join the herd with its mother. Young bongos grow quickly. Their horns start to develop at the age of 3 to 4 months. Bongos reach sexual maturity at the age of 2 to 2.5 years. Bongo can survive 10 to 18 years in the wild and up to 19 years in the captivity.
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