Seventeen critically endangered mountain bongo antelopes boarded a DHL Express plane at Palm Beach International Airport in February. Bound for Kenya, they included five males and 12 females, some of them pregnant. More than cargo, these bongos are the last, best hope for their species.
They know nothing of the statistics — that fewer than 100 of their kind remain in the wild — or the years of planning that led to this moment. To them, it was just a strange, noisy trip. But FIU's Paul Reillo knows these bongos are the very definition of a second chance.
Reillo is a research professor and director of FIU's Tropical Conservation Institute. He is also the founding director of the nonprofit Rare Species Conservatory Foundation (RSCF), which operates the facility where the 17 bongos were raised. For years, he worked toward this moment — breeding the animals in semi-wild conditions, tending to their health and wellness alongside his RSCF team. This includes FIU alumnus Matt Morris, RCSF's operations director and team lead for the mountain bongo. Together, they prepared the bongos for the long journey as best they could, building custom crates to keep them safe and calm during the 36-hour journey to their ancestral home on Mt. Kenya. Reillo found time to do the paperwork. A lot of paperwork. He worked closely with the Meru Bongo and Rhino Conservation Trust to find the bongos a safe place to call home. He worked closely with DHL to secure them safe transport. He worked to raise the funds to make this moment happen. For this species' last chance at survival, he worked.
