Birders new to South Africa will be pleasantly surprised at how sophisticated the local bird scene has become of late. Our bird guides rank among the finest anywhere in the world, and the scientific literature generated by our bird specialists is world class.

Southern Africa is poorly endowed with true forests. Since the country is generally arid, most of our forest patches occur in highly restricted areas, mainly on coastal plains, remote mountain gorges and in areas of consistently high rainfall. The key environmental factors that limit the spread of these beautiful forests are firstly water, but they would certainly extend somewhat if it were not for grassveld fires in the surrounding areas. The rainfall of these forests range from 700-2000mm per year, occurring through all seasons depending on the area where they occur. In some areas they extend to altitudes where winter snow falls.

You hear them long before you see anything. They twitter like small birds, while moving through the branches, high in the canopy of the forest giants. Then, if you are lucky, you will see a slight movement, and looking closely, you will see an amazingly long tail drooping from a branch. Only then, as your eyes get accustomed to the green aquarium light of the forest, will you see the Samango monkey. Samango monkeys are rare (CITES Appendix II) because they are confined to the evergreen Afromontane forests of Southern Africa, which covers less than 1% of the land area of the sub-region (see Afromontane Forests on this site). Unlike the ubiquitous Vervet Monkey, which commonly occurs in the vast stretches of Savanna Woodland, tourists and nature lovers rarely see the Samango. Only in a few unique places does one have the rare opportunity to come face to face with these graceful little apes. One such place is the Magoebaskloof Hotel in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. Because the hotel management is committed to sustainable and environmentally friendly management practices, they have lived in harmony with these monkeys for many years now. Samangoes are seen around the hotel on a daily basis, and some of the dominant males sometimes even venture into rooms to scrounge for edibles left lying around. Samangoes are active, gregarious, noisy and curious, like most primates around the world. They are also very intelligent, and this makes them successful survivors in rapidly changing environment. But, unfortunately, since the Samango is totally restricted to moist forests, they have little chance of surviving when their habitat is destroyed or overexploited.