BONGO 321 



far out with regard to their relationships. So much is this the case 

 that the first time I saw the spoor of the lesser kudu I had no difficulty 

 in deciding to what animal it belonged from its similarity to that of 

 the greater kudu ; so with the bongo my first impression of the spoor 

 was that it was something between that of an immense bushbuck and 

 an eland. The spoor, however, conveys no idea of the great size of 

 the bongo ; nor does following the track, for the branches and creepers 

 close in after it has passed, making it impossible to believe that an 

 animal as big as a bullock has passed. It is only when one sees the 

 animal lying dead that its bulk is truly realised. 



" The food of the bongo is varied, consisting of some of the shoots 

 and trailers on which the goats on the edge of the forest are fed, and 

 short herbage growing round the base of trees such as kudus are fond 

 of. In the forest stinging nettles grow luxuriantly, and also a plant 

 like the nettle in shape, but stingless, both of which are eaten by the 

 bongo. Of other food, bongo eat the bark, pith, and roots of trees, 

 bamboo-leaves, and a plant whose leaves resemble those of a gigantic 

 primrose. Their fondness for pith and the rotten wood of trees which 

 have fallen and decayed with the damp and moisture of the forest is 

 extraordinary. To some of these trees they return night after night, 

 and a broken or dead tree which has gone rotten often has paths 

 leading to and from it, while all round is a cleared space, worn and 

 deeply trodden with tracks. I have seen several of these trees with 

 the bark stripped off and the decayed wood underneath gnawed to 

 the height of 8 feet above the ground. 



" To reach to this height the animals put their fore-legs against 

 the tree and rear up like goats or Waller's gazelles. Small trees are 

 sometimes uprooted, the animal digging its horns underneath and 

 levering them up. This is to get at the roots ; and on examining 

 several trees uprooted in this way I have noticed that the leaves are 

 never eaten, though strips of the bark are sometimes torn off. The 

 destructive way in which trees are pulled down and branches and bark 

 torn off reminds one of the handiwork of the eland. 



" Like most other bucks, bongo eat the red earth, so common in 

 Africa, in which there is a certain amount of salt, and little shallow 

 basins may often be seen where the ground has been pawed up to 

 loosen the soil. These little basins are peculiar to the bongo, for most 

 other salt-eating animals break off earth from an overhanging bank, 

 or from the side of a termite-hillock. 



" Another food to which the bongo is partial is the charred remains 

 of a burnt tree, which it eats in small quantities, probably for the 



Y 



