Zoo Welcomes Endangered Bongo Calf

March 8, 2022

SIOUX FALLS:  

The Great Plains Zoo & Delbridge Museum of Natural History (GPZ) team is happy to announce the birth of a male eastern bongo antelope. The calf was born Monday, March 1, with the help of the GPZ Animal Care team.

The calf is nursing well and bonding with his mother, seven-year-old Zahara. The calf’s father is Beau, GPZ’s 10-year-old male eastern bongo. This is the pair’s second calf and second male offspring.  

Guests can view the new baby bongo in the Hoofstock Building, which is located across from the Vet Clinic and Giraffe Barn in the southwest corner of the Zoo. This spring and summer, he will join his parents on the GPZ African Savanna.

Visitors will notice a couple distinctive features on the calf – including very large ears and a distinctive stripe pattern. These are adaptations to help bongos avoid predators in the wild. The calf’s horns will likely start showing within four months and, unlike antlers on deer species, bongos do not shed their horns.

Eastern bongos are critically endangered due to poaching and habitat destruction, with only 75-140 adult animals surviving in the wild. However, more than 300 eastern bongos are prospering in zoos as part of the AZA Species Survival Plan.

GPZ is open all year, with many animals on exhibit – indoors and throughout the Zoo grounds, weekly education programs, and a collection of fascinating and rare taxidermy specimens in the Delbridge Museum of Natural History. The gift shop features a snack bar offering a variety of coffee drinks and more. For more information on the animals living at GPZ, visit GreatZoo.org.