Seeing first-hand the work our conservation zoo does to save species
Chester Zoo's Chief Executive Officer, Jamie Christon, shares his first-hand experience seeing the work being done to bring one of Africa's rarest animals back from the brink of extinction.
One of the great privileges of this job is where it takes you. Back in December 2024, it took me to the highland forests of Mount Kenya - to see first-hand the work being done to bring one of Africa's rarest animals back from the brink of extinction.
Today, we’re announcing a landmark moment in that work.
Four mountain bongo males - carefully bred in European conservation zoos - are to be transferred to the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy (MKWC). It will be the first time animals from European zoos have been repatriated to Kenya as part of an active breeding and rewilding effort. With fewer than 50 of these majestic antelopes surviving in the wild, this matters enormously.
But this story is about more than one species.
Modern zoos are not what people sometimes assume them to be. They are science-led conservation organisations, operating coordinated breeding programmes across continents, working hand-in-hand with governments, field conservationists and local communities to protect biodiversity at a global scale.
Chester Zoo's experts have spent 11 years coordinating the European breeding programme for the mountain bongo. Our teams are on the ground in Kenya, and worked in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service, Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy and Liverpool John Moores University in 2024 to develop the world’s first AI detection system for the species. As mountain bongo are extremely shy and difficult to observe in the wild, these cameras were able to monitor behaviour and health without disturbing the animals, and helped to count the Aberdares National Park population in near real time.
The four mountain bongos heading to Kenya will add vital genetics to those already being cared for at MKWC. The long-term ambition is to grow this population to 750 by 2050. That number once felt unthinkable. It no longer does.
This is what zoos can do. This is what zoos are doing. I couldn't be more proud of the Chester Zoo team, and of every partner who has made this historic moment possible.
The mountain bongo's future is brighter today than it was yesterday, and that's worth celebrating.
Jamie Christon, Chief Executive Officer, Chester Zoo