Our new baby is Brody, born December 6, 2011. Brody weighed in at 18.3 kg (just over 40 pounds) at birth. He’s a big healthy boy with a good appetite as evidenced by his current weight 5 weeks later – 42 kg (just over 92 pounds).
Houston Zoo Welcomes new bongo calf "Brody"
Brody can be seen every day (weather permitting) on exhibit with his 3 year old mom Penelope. His favorite spot for resting and naps is in the front right hand corner of the exhibit.
Bongos are among the largest of the African forest antelope.
To the casual observer, all bongo calves look alike. But our keepers found a perfect way to tell them apart – they count the white stripes on their side. Bongo can have 10 to 14 white stripes on each side and each side can present a different configuration. For instance, Penelope has 11 stripes on each side.
So, you might ask – what’s a bongo? Well, a bongo is a type of antelope native to the lowlands and mountain forests of Kenya and western Africa. In the wild, bongos are shy and elusive but very social. In fact, bongos are the only forest antelope to form herds.
The Western or lowland bongo is classified as near threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the IUCN. The Eastern or mountain bongo is classified as endangered.
Over a span of six weeks, from mid-February to mid-March, we welcomed three baby bongos into the Houston Zoo wildlife family.
To the casual observer, all the calves look alike. But our keepers found a perfect way to tell them apart – they count the white stripes on their side. Bongos can have 10 to 14 white stripes on each side and each side can present a different configuration. For instance, Penelope has 11 stripes on each side. But Linus has 11 on one side and 13 on the other. Dylan, on the other hand has 13 striped on each side.