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A bongo with a reddish-brown coat, thin white stripes and long horns grazing on grass.
Photo: Charles Miller from Basingstoke, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bongo

Tragelaphus eurycerus

A large forest antelope of tropical Africa with 10 to 15 pale stripes down each side and horns up to 3 feet long.

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About the Bongo

Bongos live in rainforests and dense forests across West and Central Africa, from the lowland rainforests of West Africa to the Congo Basin, the Central African Republic and southern Sudan. A bongo has 10 to 15 whitish-yellow stripes running down each side. Bongos are browsers that eat leaves, bushes, vines, bark, grasses, roots, flowers and fruit. Their horns can grow up to 3 feet long.[1]

Quick facts

Scientific name
Tragelaphus eurycerus[1]
Size
About 4 feet (1.2 m) tall at the shoulder.[1]
Weight
500 to 900 pounds (225 to 410 kg).[1]
Lifespan
Up to 21 years in captivity. No data for the wild.[1]
Diet
Herbivore. Browses on leaves, bushes, vines, bark, grasses, roots, cereals, shrubs, flowers and fruits.[1]
Habitat
Rainforests, dense forests and forest-savannas.[1]
Where it lives
Lowland rainforests of West Africa and the Congo Basin to the Central African Republic and southern Sudan.[1]
Babies
Pregnancy lasts about 9 months.[1]
Conservation status
Near Threatened (IUCN Red List, assessed 2016).[2]

Fun facts

  • A bongo has 10 to 15 whitish-yellow stripes running down its sides.[1]
  • Bongo horns can grow up to about 3 feet (1 m) long.[1]
  • There are two kinds of bongo: the lowland (western) bongo and the mountain (eastern) bongo.[1]

Vocabulary

antelope
A fast, deer-like mammal with hooves and horns, found mostly in Africa and Asia.
browser
An animal that eats leaves, twigs and shoots from bushes and trees.
rainforest
A thick forest that gets a lot of rain all year.
near threatened
A conservation label meaning a species may become threatened soon.
generation
The average time between an animal's birth and the birth of its own young.

See it in person

Sources

  1. [1] African Wildlife Foundation. “Bongo.” https://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/bongo (accessed 2026-10-02)
  2. [2] IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. “Tragelaphus eurycerus (Bongo).” https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22047/50195617 (accessed 2026-10-02)

Facts last checked 2026-10-02.

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