MAWINGU, Kenya: Still dizzy from the transquilizer, a mountain bongo made its first uncertain steps outside captivity as conservationists in Kenya opened a sanctuary they hope can bring the endemic forest antelope back from the brink of extinction.
A combination of disease, poaching and loss of forest habitat from illegal logging and agriculture have left fewer than 100 mountain bongos in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
But this week conservationists released five of the large chestnut-colored antelopes, which is native to the equatorial forests of Kenya, into the 776 acre (3.1 square kilometer) Mawingu Mountain Bongo Sanctuary in the foothills of Mount Kenya.
“The mountain bongo is one of Kenya’s most important iconic animals,” said Najib Balala, minister of tourism and wildlife, after cutting the ribbon at the sanctuary’s opening ceremony on Wednesday.
The bongo’s release is the culmination of a breeding and rewilding program that began in 2004, which aims to have 50-70 fully rewilded bongos in the sanctuary by 2025, and 750 by 2050, according to the government.
“This is like the first step in the recovery,” said Isaac Lekolool, head of veterinary services at the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).
Mountain bongos once roamed widely in large numbers, but the few remaining animals, whose coats are streaked with distinctive thin white stripes, live in isolated pockets of forest scattered around Kenya.
Among the threats, the IUCN says there has been an increase in hunting of mountain bongo by local people, including hunting with dogs.
“This species is being driven to extinction in the wild unless something is done quickly,” said Robert Aruho, head of vetinary services at the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy (MKWC), a charity.
MKWC has set up community conservation, education, and empowerment programs to raise awareness and help reduce human threats to the animal.
MKWC has also involved local communities in planting over 35,000 indigenous tree species around Mount Kenya, Africa’s second highest peak, to restore the degraded forest ecosystem.
To help maintain genetic diversity in the breeding program, approval has been given to import bongos from Europe and America, Aruho said.
On brink of extinction, a new hope for Kenya’s forest antelope
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On brink of extinction, a new hope for Kenya’s forest antelope
- A combination of disease, poaching and loss of forest habitat from illegal logging and agriculture have left fewer than 100 mountain bongos in the wild
Archeologists discover world’s oldest artwork in Indonesia’s Sulawesi
- Newly dated artworks are believed to have been created by ancestors of indigenous Australians
- Discovery shows Sulawesi as one of world’s oldest centers of artistic culture, researcher says
JAKARTA: Hand stencils found in a cave in Indonesia’s Sulawesi are the world’s oldest known artworks, Indonesian and Australian archeologists have said in a new study that dates the drawings back to at least 67,800 years ago.
Sulawesi hosts some of the world’s earliest cave art, including the oldest known example of visual storytelling — a cave painting depicting human-like figures interacting with a wild pig. Found in 2019, it dates back at least 51,200 years.
On Muna, an island off the province’s southeast, researchers have discovered new artworks which are faint and partially obscured by a more recent motif on the wall. They used a new dating technique to determine their age.
The cave art is of two faded hand stencils, one at least 60,900 years old and another dating back at least 67,800 years. This makes it the oldest art to be found on cave walls, authors of the study, which was published this week, said in the journal Nature.
Adhi Agus Oktaviana, a researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency, or BRIN, and co-author, said this hand stencil was 16,600 years older than the rock art previously documented in the Maros-Pangkep caves in Sulawesi, and about 1,100 years older than stencils found in Spain believed to have been drawn by Neanderthals.
The discovery “places Indonesia as one of the most important centers in the early history of symbolic art and modern human seafaring. This discovery is the oldest reliably dated rock art and provides direct evidence that humans have been intentionally crossing the ocean since almost 70,000 years ago,” Oktaviana said on Wednesday.
The stencils are located in Liang Metanduno, a limestone cave on Muna that has been a tourist destination known for cave paintings that are about 4,000 years old.
“This discovery demonstrates that Sulawesi is one of the oldest and most continuous centers of artistic culture in the world, with roots dating back to the earliest phases of human habitation in the region,” said Prof. Maxime Aubert of Australia, another of the study’s co-authors.
To figure out the stencils’ ages, researchers used a technique called laser-ablation uranium-series dating, which allows for the accurate dating of ocher-based rock art. The method uses a laser to collect and analyze a tiny amount of mineral crusts that had formed on top of the art.
The study also explored how and when Australia first became settled, with the researchers saying the stencil was most likely created by the ancestors of indigenous Australians.
