I am going to level with all of you. I chose today’s animal based purely on their name. For some reason, I have a ton of fun saying the word “Bongo”. Go ahead, try it out! You can’t tell me that it isn’t a fun word, can you? Please don’t judge me. Some people pick their favourite football team by the colour of their jersey’s, well, I pick my animals but the coolness of their name. Bongo! Sorry, I had to say it one more time.
All right, let’s get away from my thinking process and into the facts, Wild Facts, that is! You can probably tell from the picture that the Bongo (honestly, I am going to smile every time I write it) is a type of antelope. You can also tell that they are a reddish-orange animal with white stripes. What you may not be able to tell from the picture is they are primarily nocturnal, and among the largest of the ungulates found in the African forest. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that they are found throughout parts of Africa.
Believe it or not the Bongo is the only animal in the world in which both the male and females have horns. Both genders typically have fairly long, spiraled horns. Just to bring you back into my brain. I immediately thought this fact was a mistake since I know both genders in animals such as Caribou have antlers. You probably caught my mistake – I automatically, compared the two since they are both ungulates. Antlers and horns are two very different things. In case you didn’t know, antlers are shed every year while horns are not. Back to the Bongo horns! These antelope use their large horns for self defense and in the case of the males, as a status symbol.
The Bongo is hardly ever seen in large groups. The males tend to be solitary while the females typically form groups between 6-8, however, some herds can get as large as 20 individuals. These Bongo herds are mostly comprised of females and their young. I guess the Bongo is no different than many other animal species, where they simply toss the males out of the group to live their bachelor lifestyle.
That does it for the Bongo Wild Fact! I hope you enjoyed reading about this antelope. Be sure to check back in tomorrow for the last fact of the week.
Really cute article! However it’s actually not true that these are the only animals in the world where both males and females grow horns.The Alpine Ibex, a type of goat, has both genders growing horns, though the male grows much larger horns. There might be more as well but I know that one for a fact.