Videos
African Striped Weasels in the wild
In the first sighting by Dave Rowe-Rowe, an African striped weasel appears from the tunnel of a mole in Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal. In the second sighting, Wicus van der Linde caught this rare sighting of three African striped weasels together near Nieu Bethesda in the Eastern Cape.
Videos
Watch a trapdoor spider catch its prey
Watch carefully to see how a trapdoor spider catches its prey through its trapdoor.
Videos
Zooming into the heart of the Milky Way to reveal the first direct image of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* captured by the Event Horizon Telescope.
Watch as this video sequence zooms into the black hole (Sgr A*) at the centre of our galaxy. Beginning with a broad view of the Milky Way, we dive into the dense clouds of gas and dust at our galactic centre. The stars here have been observed with ESO’s Very Large Telescope and ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer for decades, the black hole’s immense gravitational pull distorting the orbits of the stars closest to it. Finally, we arrive at Sgr A*, the first image of which has been captured by the EHT collaboration. The black hole is shown by a dark central region called a shadow, surrounded by a ring of luminous gas and dust. The various observations used here were taken at different times, by different teams and with different facilities, and put together for the purpose of the zoom effect. The images go from visible wavelengths at the beginning to infrared, with the very final image being taken at radio wavelengths.
Videos
How important are bats to the environment?
Researchers at the University of Pretoria are determining the threat posed to the ecosystem and that of human health as people expand their settlements closer to the natural habitats of bats. It is vital that bats are well protected. Ultimately, if bat populations decrease, humans will be affected.
Videos
The University of Pretoria's role in the ground-breaking image of the black hole
Congratulations to UP's Professor Roger Deane and his team, who are part of the international group behind today’s announcement of the first image of a black hole ever captured. Prof Roger Deane explains more in this video.
Videos
Food security in rural South Africa
South Africans are hungry. That is the harsh reality faced by poor communities that make up more than half of the population. The masses simply aren't eating a diet that is diverse or wholesome enough to get the right amount of nourishment they need.The University of Pretoria’s Institute for Food Nutrition and Wellbeing (IFNuW) is actively working with poor communities to turn the tide on hunger.