LANDLORD OF THE WILD

The humble aardvark is seldom praised for its work digging out homes for other animals

- ANTON CRONE

SOMETHING NOT apparent in The Lion King was Pumba the warthog's most remarkable magic trick: the ability to disappear. Surprise a warthog in the African wild and it'll take off like a Formula One driver. Often you can trace its course through the grass by its aerial-like tail, which is at full mast when sprinting. Then, suddenly, it'll vanish as if it had never been there.

Being a favourite dish of so many predators, warthogs are constantly on alert, and they seldom venture far from their burrows, into which they'll escape when threatened. Typically deep and narrow, these underground lairs are where they seek shelter, and rear their young. But warthogs, and many other animals, are in fact rent-free lodgers. They have no part in the design and construction of their homes. That is left to another remarkable creature, the aardvark (which means 'earth pig' in Afrikaans).

I was at Khoisan Karoo Conservancy in South Africa's Northern Cape to see the Shy Five, a pentad of extraordinary creatures on the opposite end of the spectrum to the safari industry's Big Five (leopard, lion, elephant, buffalo and rhino). Safari operators deliver truckloads of tourists to within mobile-phonephoto distance of all five within a week. But ask for an aardvark, bat-eared fox, porcupine, aardwolf or black-footed cat, and your guide will ask nervously: "How long have you got?"

I had three days - two nights to be precise, for that is when the critters typically appear. My expectations were not high; it is notoriously difficult to see any of them, never mind all five on one trip.

DURING THE DAY, CONSERVANCY owner Piet Cronje 'PC' Ferreira drove me to his favourite birding spots in a game-viewing vehicle. PC's family have owned this and neighbouring farmland for generations. He belongs to this soil and has an unbreakable determination run through with bubbling enthusiasm.