November, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
§97 
Every branch pushed out of the way is 
carefully replaced by hand, so as to 
avoid rustling, and every step we tread 
toe first in the bongo’s own track, so as 
to tread only on twigs which have al- 
ready been cracked by its heavy tread. 
During this performance one will be sur- 
prised to find how unsuited the human 
form is for proceeding through the for- 
est; head, shoulders, elbows, ears, and 
rifle stock become repeatedly entangled 
in the undergrowth whilst the feet re- 
semble nothing so much as a pair of 
grapnels, hooking into every creeper. 
Suddenly one hears a distant sound 
like the roll of a toy drum — it approaches 
rapidly, passes overhead with a swish- 
ing of boughs, and recedes into the dis- 
tant fastnesses of the forest. It is the 
croaking of a party of Colobus travelling 
from one part of the forest to another 
by hurling themselves from tree top to 
tree top. 
W E proceed on our way wondering 
more and more how such a big 
animal as the bongo could have 
left such a small opening in its wake. 
The secret of this is that it makes its 
whole body into the shape of a wedge — 
laying its horns straight along its back, 
crouching its body and stretching its 
head well forward and close to the 
ground. Its nose resembles the point of 
the wedge; it is slipped through the 
creepers and they are gradually forced 
apart and glide along the hofns and off 
the back, falling back again into their 
place after the animal has passed. 
The base of the horns of an old animal 
become considerably worn from the con- 
stant friction whilst the back of the 
ears are often rubbed bare of hair. The 
tips of the horns sometimes rub two 
small bare patches on the back. 
The bongo prefers to crouch under, or 
through an obstacle rather than go over 
it and this great beast will pass beneath 
a branch only 18 or 20 inches from the 
ground which the small bushbuck would 
think nothing of jumping. 
Now let us imagine that we have been 
lucky, the wind has kept right and we 
have made no noise to betray our pres- 
ence. Better still a light shower has 
commenced and the patter on the leaves 
drowns any slight rustle. Suddenly 
there is a crash in front of us and we 
glimpse and hurriedly fire at something 
red, flashing through the undergrowth. 
There is the sound from close at hand 
of a big body falling whilst another body 
goes crashing away into the forest. 
We make our way forward and see 
lying on its side an animal like a gigan- 
tic bushbuck, nearly as big as an eland. 
The female like the eland and unlike 
the bushbuck, has horns, shaped some- 
what like those of the former but also 
bearing a resemblance to the situtunga. 
The horns of the male are very massive, 
especially at the base. The young and 
females are of a handsome reddish- 
brown, like the bushbuck, with about 
thirteen bright white stripes. The na- 
tives say that some of these stripee dis- 
appear with age, which is quite possi- 
ble. The male is of a darker ground 
color. The horns of both sexes have 
white, ivory-like, tips like the kudu’s. 
T HIS animal was first known ob the 
West Coast — later an East African 
variety was discovered in the for- 
ests of the escarpments in British East 
Africa, the first skins being brought in 
by native hunters of a tribe called Ogieg, 
who hunt them with dogs. 
Its food, besides the plants already 
mentioned, consists largely of bark, root3, 
the pith of decayed trees and a plant 
like an enormous primrose. Its fond- 
ness for pith from rotten trees is re- 
markable. Sometimes such a tree is en- 
countered with tracks of all ages lead- 
ing to and from it whilst the trunk will 
have been gnawed to the height of eight 
feet, a he ght to reach which the animal 
must sta d on its hind legs, putting its 
fore feet against the trunk. Small trees 
are uprooted by digging and levering up 
the roots with the horns; the roots are 
then eaten and the bark stripped off. 
Charred wood is sometimes eaten in 
small quantities, presumably for the salt 
taste, whilst red earth is pawed up and 
eaten for the same reason. Most ante- 
lope obtain salt earth by breaking pieces 
off a termite’s nest or an overhanging 
bank. Little shallow basins from which 
the earth has been pawed up are con- 
stantly met with in the forest and are 
peculiar to the habits of the bongo. 
Photographed by Herbert Lang, of the American Museum of Natural History, Congo Expedition. 
The bongo resembles a gigantic bushbuck and is nearly as large as an eland 
