Four mountain bongos, a rare type of antelope native to Kenya's highland forests, have arrived in Kenya after being sent from a zoo in the Czech Republic.
The male antelopes arrived in the country on Tuesday night and were welcomed at Nairobi's main airport by Kenya's foreign and tourism ministers, along with other officials. They have since been moved to a private wildlife reserve in central Kenya.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) hailed the "historic homecoming" of the antelopes as a "meaningful step" to their recovery in the wild.
From about 500 in the 1970s, less than 100 are estimated to remain in the wild – fewer than live in zoos around the world, according to KWS.
KWS director-general Erustus Kanga described Tuesday's arrival of the bongos as a "moment of hope, responsibility, and renewed commitment to securing the future of one of the world's rarest large mammals".
