You can track pangolins and find rare animals, plants, and birds at this Big 5 reserve in SA
, which showcases some of South Africa's most notable animals, and a handful of rare and unusual species considered by many to be bucket list items.
Hopping off the vehicle for a guided walk among the ancient trees will reveal even more diminutive delights — like one of the smallest known flowering orchids in the world. Or the critically endangered Phinda button spider, a discovery confirmed just three years ago. Humphrey soon found a flowering Microcoelia exilis orchid on an eye-level branch of a tree several hundred years old. The tiny plant is one of the smallest of its kind and is known by most as a pinhead orchid, for obvious reasons.A few quiet steps along the leafy forest floor later, Humphrey dropped to all fours, scoured around a fallen log, and exclaimed with palpable excitement.
These tranquil forests envelop Phinda's stilted Forest Lodge and serve as the ideal atmospheric start and end of the twice-daily game drive.Game drives are well choreographed with other guides to maximise the chances of sightings of animals and minimise the possibility of encountering other eager guests. Only three vehicles are allowed to go in search of animals in a specific region, and rotations at prime sightings happen seamlessly.
The most dramatic of these occurrences culminated in Matenjwa tracking a cheetah and her two cubs on foot while we searched elsewhere. Moments later, he radioed back to our vehicle to call us in for a remarkable sighting.Humphrey explained that with fewer open spaces than cheetah are typically used to, those in Phinda have adapted to hunt in thick bush.
Phinda was among the first reserves in South Africa to trial the release of pangolins back into the wild and is one of the most successful. Before their programme, the most recent record of a pangolin sighting there was in 1984. Now, De Vos says, about one untracked pangolin sighting a month comes through to their offices.