The First Baby Bongo Antelope is Born at the Honolulu Zoo

You can visit the 1-month-old baby and her mother now.

The Honolulu Zoo is welcoming a new addition—and just in time for spring.

On Feb. 19, a baby bongo antelope was born at the zoo. The female calf, which weighed about 30 pounds, is the first offspring of Topanga (mother) and Cory (father), both 5-year-old bongo antelopes.

The baby doesn’t have a name yet.

The zoo announced today that both the baby and her mother are currently on exhibit.

This is a monumental birth, as bongo antelope (Tragelaphus eurycerus) are listed as “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. There are only about 28,000 bongo antelope in the world.

“Every new birth at the Honolulu Zoo is exciting, and the fact that eastern lowland bongos are considered to be near threatened makes this new calf even more special,” said zoo director Linda Santos.

Found in Eastern, Western and Central Africa, bongos are the most spectacular and the largest of the forest antelopes. They are herbivores, mostly nocturnal and boast a brilliantly colored hide and long, smooth, spiral-shaped horns. (Fun fact: The bongo is the only species of spiral-horned antelope in which both males and females have horns. The female’s horns are thinner and more parallel.) Noted for their bright, glossy, chestnut brown color, bongoes have 12 to 14 vertical white stripes, which help conceal them in their natural forested habitats. Their lifespan in the wild is about 19 years.

The Honolulu Zoo welcomed a new baby sloth in December 2018, the fourth two-toed sloth born here in four years.

To learn more, visit honoluluzoo.org.