Featherbed Nature Reserve is a privately owned nature reserve on the Western Headland of the

Knysna Knysna (; ) is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It is situated 60 kilometres east of the c ...

River Estuary on South Africa’s

Garden Route The Garden Route (Afrikaans: ''Tuinroete'') is a stretch of the south-eastern coast of South Africa which extends from Witsand in the Western Cape to the border of Tsitsikamma Storms River in the Eastern Cape. The name comes from the verdant ...

. It was founded by South African television teacher, William Smith, on land that was bought in the 1950s by his father, the chemist and ichthyologist Professor JLB Smith, with the proceeds of his best selling book, ‘Old Fourlegs The Story of the

Coelacanth Coelacanths ( ) are an ancient group of lobe-finned fish (Sarcopterygii) in the class Actinistia. As sarcopterygians, they are more closely related to lungfish and tetrapods (the terrestrial vertebrates including living amphibians, reptiles, bi ...

,’ published in 1956. The reserve opened to visitors in 1984, and is only accessible to the public by ferry. Smith sold the reserve to Eastern-Cape-based businessman Kobus Smit in 2008.

Fauna & Flora

Featherbed Nature Reserve is situated within the

Cape Floristic Region The Cape Floral Region is a floristic region located near the southern tip of South Africa. It is the only floristic region of the Cape Floristic Kingdom, and includes only one floristic province, known as the Cape Floristic Province. The Cap ...

. Its vegetation is characterised by Knysna Sand

Fynbos Fynbos (; , ) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate. The fynbos ...

and coastal dune thicket. Large portions of the fynbos, and large stands of invasive alien vegetation (particularly rooikrans -

Acacia cyclops ''Acacia cyclops'', commonly known as coastal wattle, cyclops wattle, one-eyed wattle, red-eyed wattle, redwreath acacia, western coastal wattle, rooikrans, rooikrans acacia, is a coastal shrub or small tree in the family Fabaceae. Native to A ...

), which once infested the Reserve, were decimated by fires in the 2017 Cape storm and Kynsna fires. Following the fires, the reserve management instituted a systematic eradication programme in an attempt to contain the resurgence of the rooikrans. Fauna observed on the reserve includes

Cape bushbuck The Cape bushbuck (''Tragelaphus sylvaticus''), also known as imbabala is a common, medium-sized bushland-dwelling, and a widespread species of antelope in sub-Saharan Africa. It is found in a wide range of habitats, such as rain forests, montane ...

blue duiker The blue duiker (''Philantomba monticola'') is a small antelope found in central, southern and eastern Africa. It is the smallest species of duiker. The species was first described by Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg in 1789. 12 subspe ...

African clawless otter The African clawless otter (''Aonyx capensis''), also known as the Cape clawless otter or groot otter, is the second-largest freshwater otter species. It inhabits permanent water bodies in savannah and lowland forest areas through most of sub-Sa ...

, and many smaller mammals. Birdlife includes the

Knysna turaco The Knysna turaco (''Tauraco corythaix''), or, in South Africa, Knysna loerie, is a large turaco, one of a group of African musophagidae birds. It is a resident breeder in the mature evergreen forests of southern and eastern South Africa, and Esw ...

(Knysna loerie) and

African Black Oystercatcher The African oystercatcher or African black oystercatcher (''Haematopus moquini'') is a large charismatic wader resident to the mainland coasts and offshore islands of southern Africa. This oystercatcher has a population of over 6,000 adults, whi ...

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Featherbed Co. official website
Knysna Nature reserves in South Africa Nature conservation in South Africa Tourist attractions in South Africa Tourist attractions in the Western Cape Tourism in the Western Cape