Featured Research: Animals

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Getting to know Africa's little elephants

Despite the great advancements made by humankind through research, which is an exclusively human ability, nature still holds many unexplored secrets.

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Bovine Tuberculosis day highlights need for more research and control strategies

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.

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UP research shows leopard numbers are vulnerable

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.

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Saving vultures across the world

The sight of more than 200 vultures circling hundreds of metres up in the sky is a picture not many get to experience anymore. But not very long ago vultures flew freely in abundance.

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Vibrant life in the ground below

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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Learning from the intelligence and emotion of elephants

Dr Yolanda Pretorius of the Centre for Wildlife Management at the University of Pretoria (UP) has studied elephants for many years. She is an elephant specialist and the ideal person to consult with regard to elephant management.