Faculty of Science

A unique study of birdlife in South African cities has found that birds prefer wealthy areas to poorer ones but will move out if things get too cramped. The study was conducted by a team of scientists from the University of Turin, Italy and the Univers

“Who knew a boy from rural Mansa, Zambia could come this far, stand a chance and become successful at opportunities like this?” These are the words of Dickson Mambwe, a University of Cape Town (UCT) PhD student working in t

The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Professor Mark New, director of the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI), has been listed among the world’s 100 most influential people in climate policy for 2019.

The way adult penguins hunt and the body condition of their chicks are both directly linked to local fish abundance and could potentially inform fishery management. This is according to a new study involving University of Cape Town (UCT) researchers. T

Head of UCT's Department of Archaeology and director of the Archaeological Materials Laboratory, Professor Shadreck Chirikure, has won the Antiquity journal of archaeology’s 

University of Cape Town (UCT) applied mathematician and fisheries scientist Professor Emeritus Doug Butterworth has been awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon by the Emperor of Japan for his contribution to th

Urban rat poisons are spilling over into Cape Town’s natural environment, threatening species such as caracal, mongoose, otter and owl. Anticoagulant rat poisons are infiltrating Cape Town’s peri-urban wildlife food chains, accord

Recent research by an international team, involving the University of Cape Town (UCT), investigated how a future, warmer Arctic could impact the algae that live in sea ice – and form the base of the marine food web there. To do this, the team use

Why does success continue to elude Africa? It was a bold question at the start of Africa Month and archaeologist Professor Shadreck Chirikure provided some answers in his 3 May inaugural lecture, sharing insights from deep history and

UCT academic Dr Lynne Shannon from the Department of Biological Sciences, is part of a team of expert authors who collaborated to compile a