Fast Facts: Bongos – Part V

Welcome to Fast Facts with Reasons for Hope! I’m Carl Kerby.

We have been looking at the super sleuth of the forest – the bongo. Unlike other antelope, bongos don’t rely on scent to find each other. They have large ears with sharp hearing and will use a limited number of vocalizations – mostly grunting and snorting, but they will bleat when in trouble. 

The male bongo is solitary and rarely spars with others, while the female lives in a small group of six to eight.

After nine months, a mother bongo will birth one calf and leave it alone in the forest undergrowth, returning frequently to nurse.

Surprisingly, the bongo is a great jumper and runs up to forty miles per hour, but it prefers to go under or around obstacles or avoid trouble altogether.

Check back with our next Fast Facts with Reasons for Hope to discover even more perfectly designed creatures. Until then… stay bold!

Karl Kerby is the founder of Reasons for Hope and co-creator of the DeBunked apologetic video series. His radio feature, Fast Facts, is heard weekly on VCY America, Saturdays at 9:25 AM Central.

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