Veterinary researchers delivered some male at the Potter Park Zoo in Lansing Monday.
A group of animal experts injected the semen of a male bongo from Louisiana into a 13-year-old female bongo at the Potter Park Zoo. A bongo is a chestnut-colored antelope species with vertical stripes originating from Africa.
Zoo officials have been planning the artificial insemination for six months, after they discovered Potter Park's only male bongo was not capable of breeding.
"We're trying to preserve the species," zoo veterinarian Tara Harrison said, adding a second female bongo will be inseminated soon.
Thirty people from the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans, Louisiana State University and the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine came together to assist in the procedure, said Gerald Brady, the Potter Park Zoo director.
The bongo is part of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's Species Survival Plan program, or SSP. The program organizes breedings, such as the one at Potter Park Zoo, to help conserve wildlife populations.
Ron Shurratt, bongo coordinator for the Species Survival Program and curator of mammals at Fort Worth Zoo in Fort Worth, Texas, said the number of captive bongos around the world exceeds those in the wild.
There are 400 bongos in captivity in the United States, which derived from 30 originals that were brought to the country in the '60s and '70s, said Shurratt.
Hunters and poachers often seek the antelope species for display and trophy purposes, Harrison said.
SSP officials will determine where the new bongo will reside, if the birth is successful. Harrison said researchers will not find out if the insemination worked for nine and a half months, which is the bongo's period of pregnancy.
"They're wild animals and they're not trained to have ultrasounds like humans ? so unfortunately that's probably not an option," she said.
Shurratt said the Fort Worth Zoo is also scheduled to inseminate two female bongos later this month. He added that the process is a viable option for zoos without male bongos, or ones that can't impregnate other bongos.
Paul Coe, associate professor at MSU College of Veterinarian Medicine, said the college was able to provide equipment and expertise that the zoo was lacking for Monday's procedure.
"It's interesting to work with animals you don't see every day," he said.
Coe, who has performed artificial insemination in cattle prior to the bongo procedure, said the restraining process required more finesse than with most animals.
"You cant just walk up to one of these things and scratch them."
