Imagine an island far removed from any human encroachment that teems with animal life. Such a place exists: it is called Marion Island and forms part of the Prince Edward islands archipelago, situated between South Africa and Antarctica.
The University of Pretoria (UP) is in a unique position that it is the only tertiary institution in the country that has a Faculty of Veterinary Science. The Faculty of Veterinary Science values its role and responsibility in conserving the environment.
At first sight, the Central African rainforest is a picturesque paradise, filled with luscious vegetation, amazing animals, and birds of all kinds.
Prof Anita Michel of the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases in the Faculty of Veterinary Science strongly doubts that there is a single buffalo herd in the nearly two million hectares of the Kruger National Park (KNP) that does not have bovine tuberculosis (BTB).
How do you get a crocodile to urinate in a cup? That is one of the questions that Dr Jan Myburgh from the University of Pretoria (UP) and his colleagues have had to research in order to develop reliable, effective ways of monitoring the health of farmed crocodiles in anticipation of a coming boom in the local industry.
Despite the great advancements made by humankind through research, which is an exclusively human ability, nature still holds many unexplored secrets.
A collaborative team effort is needed to counter the increasing danger of bovine tuberculosis (BTB) in wildlife evident in the continuous spread of the disease to wildlife on unrelated properties in different parts of South Africa.
A few years ago, PhD candidate Lourens Swanepoel, under supervision of Prof Michael Somers and Dr Fredrik Dalerum of the Centre for Wildlife Management at UP, decided to look into the survival rates and causes of mortality of leopards in southern Africa.
Few of us spend our days thinking about the forms of life that exist beneath us; even fewer imagine castles of clay and flourishing life in the soils below. Endemic to the soils of Africa is the fascinating small mammal known as the mole-rat that lives underground, excavating burrow systems that may extend for more than a kilometre.
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