Sterkfontein Caves reopened after safety upgrades
The Elephant Chamber is one of the main chambers within the Sterkfontein Caves, known for its significant role in paleontological discoveries, including the discovery of hominid fossils. (Umamah Bakharia/M&G)
After a two-year closure prompted by safety concerns and conservation efforts, the Sterkfontein Caves—one of South Africa's most celebrated paleoanthropological sites—have officially reopened to the public, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) has announced.
Located within the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in Gauteng, the caves have yielded some of the most significant fossil discoveries related to human evolution, including the iconic
Australopithecus africanus
specimens 'Mrs Ples' and 'Little Foot.' The finds have cemented South Africa's role as a central player in the field of human origins research.
The site was closed in early 2023 following safety assessments by Wits University's occupational and safety directorate. The decision came after heavy rainfall in December 2022 saturated soil layers above the cave system, causing destabilisation and increasing the risk of collapse.
'There were some earth movements, so we put in some sensors and monitored it,' said Professor Nithaya Chetty, Dean of the Faculty of Science at Wits. 'We found areas that needed reinforcement and made the decision to close. We have since conducted several tests, and the cave is now safe.'
It was the first public closure in the site's history.
The caves now boast refurbished pathways, improved lighting, and enhanced visitor infrastructure. A new interpretive centre is also under development.
Chetty said the upgrades reflect a broader commitment to preserving the site's integrity while expanding its educational and scientific potential.
'With a lot of care, attention to detail and scientific advancements, we can preserve the site for many more years to come, just like the site has been preserved for millions of years,' he said.
Among the new advancements is the adoption of artificial intelligence to accelerate fossil discovery and analysis.
Traditionally, researchers excavated fossils manually—a painstaking process involving delicate chiselling and brushing. Now, AI tools allow scientists to scan blocks of rock using X-ray technology, offering insight into the fossil's contents before excavation begins.
'This saves us years of extracting and lab processing,' Chetty said. 'It will advance science.'
The Sterkfontein Caves are part of a dolomitic system estimated to have formed 20 to 30 million years ago, with over 2.5 kilometres of mapped underground chambers. The unique mineral composition, including calcium carbonate deposited by dripping water, aids in the rare preservation of fossils.
The site has produced more than 700 hominid fossil specimens, making it one of the richest early human fossil sites globally.
'Little Foot,' excavated between 1994 and 1998 by Ron Clarke and a team including Nkwane Molefe and Stephen Motsumi, is considered one of the most complete hominid skeletons ever found, dating back 3.67 million years.
Today, Molefe's son, researcher Itumeleng Molefe, continues the legacy. Working in the 'Elephant Chamber,' named for its towering dolomite formations, he described the meticulous nature of the work.
'We sweep the area with a brush and take out the rocks,' he said. 'When we see something interesting, we put it aside, clean it up and send it to the lab for inspection. But it's not every day that we find something—maybe once every two weeks or even once a month. It takes time.'
While the scientific significance of the site is globally recognised, local economic and environmental considerations remain critical.
Tourism is a vital economic driver for the region, but community members in nearby Mogale City have long called for more inclusive development strategies.
Some local guides say they hope the reopening will create more jobs and skills development opportunities.
'It's not just about people coming to see rocks and bones,' said Trevor Buthelezi, a local guide. 'It's about telling stories, passing on knowledge, and making sure young people from here know what lies beneath their feet.'
To balance preservation with access, the revamped management plan includes caps on daily visitor numbers and an expanded digital presence. Plans include 3D virtual cave tours aimed at schools across South Africa, allowing students to engage with the site without compromising its fragile environment.
The Sterkfontein Caves remain under the sole custodianship of Wits University.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Maverick
3 days ago
- Daily Maverick
Wits researchers help create ‘most accurate maps yet' of where reforestation can best fight climate change
The study has strong implications for Africa where natural grasslands and savannas are often misguidedly and inappropriately converted to forests, which can actually harm biodiversity and even exacerbate global warming. A new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, has identified land roughly equivalent to the combined area of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe where reforestation can deliver optimal climate benefits while supporting wildlife habitat, food production, and freshwater availability. It identifies an area for reforestation that can net 2,225 TgCO₂e (teragrams of carbon dioxide equivalent) or roughly 2.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year total in net mitigation potential. That's roughly five times South Africa's annual emissions. Though global in scope, the study has strong implications for Africa where natural grasslands and savannas are often misguidedly and inappropriately converted to forests, which can actually harm biodiversity and even exacerbate global warming. It also holds the potential to better inform and operationalise the nature-based solution's potential on the continent, which faces disproportionate climate impacts despite contributing very little to human-induced climate change. The study, in part from the University of the Witwatersrand's Future Ecosystems for Africa (Fefa) programme, saw the creation of what it described as 'the most accurate maps' of 195 million hectares globally where tree restoration will deliver 'maximum climate benefits'. Professor Sally Archibald from Wits' School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Science, who leads the Fefa programme, explains that 'previous studies often failed to address how afforestation could have negative effects on biodiversity and human well-being, especially for poor people living in remote rural areas often targeted for reforestation'. 'The drop from previous estimates is due to layers that previous maps haven't been able to incorporate, because the research was still nascent at the time.' Archibald explains that the research 'accounts for the albedo effect, for example, which means restoring tree cover can, in some locations, actively heat the Earth rather than cool it by affecting how much sunlight is absorbed or reflected. It also excludes native grasslands and other ecosystems where carpeting the land with trees would harm biodiversity and exacerbate fire regimes.' This aspect of the research accords with the findings of another, earlier study, led in part by Emeritus professor of biological sciences at the University of Cape Town (UCT), William Bond. Daily Maverick reported at the time that the Bond study bust the myth that planting trees everywhere is the silver bullet to slowing global warming, and explained why we need areas like open grasslands in the savannas. Africa contains more grasses than any other continent. According to the South African National Biodiversity Institute, the savanna is the biggest biome in southern Africa, covering 46% of its area. Bond explained at the time that savannas – characterised by grasslands – are an open habitat peppered with a handful of trees, and that in a healthy grassland ecosystem there is a very delicate balance between trees and grasses that needs to be maintained for the diversity of animal species that it supports to survive and thrive. Tree-planting plans to offset carbon threaten the ancient grasslands and everything it supports, he said. 'What many don't realise is that grasslands store carbon in their soils and reflect more sunlight back into space than forests, playing a very important part in cooling the Earth.' Dr Susan Cook-Patton, at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and a senior author of the latest study, told The Guardian that 'reforestation is not a substitute for cutting fossil fuel emissions, but even if we were to drive down emissions tomorrow, we still need to remove excess CO₂ from the atmosphere. 'As the number of climate-fuelled disasters stack up worldwide, it's increasingly obvious that we can't waste time on well-meaning but hazily understood interventions,' Cook-Patton said. 'We must fast-track our focus toward the places with greatest benefits for people and nature and the fewest downsides, the places most likely to be win-win. This study will help leaders and investors do just that.' DM
Daily Maverick
02-06-2025
- Daily Maverick
Forget cats, forget traps — bring in the puff adders to revolutionise pest control
Africa's coolest pest control agents have fangs, no overheads and a killer instinct. Enter the puff adder (Bitis arietans) — nature's unassuming, cold-blooded rodent regulator. A new study by Professor Graham Alexander at the University of the Witwatersrand has revealed just how spectacularly efficient these snakes are, offering compelling evidence that they might be the farmers' unsung ally. They're often cast as villains, coiled and hissing in the corners of bushveld myths, but puff adders are ecological rockstars with a lazy flair for lethal efficiency. Unlike mammals who must eat constantly to fuel their furnace-like bodies, puff adders can down tools — or fangs — and wait. For months. Even years. In the largest-ever study of its kind, Alexander raised 18 puff adders over four years under tightly controlled conditions. The snakes, all born in captivity, were housed at Wits University and observed during a series of trials that measured their feeding, fasting and weight changes. What he discovered could change the way we think about snakes — and pest control. 'The key idea,' Alexander explains, 'is something I called the 'factorial scope of ingestion'. It's a way of measuring how much more a predator can eat when food becomes abundant. No one's used this in animals before — I made up the name.' Masters of the buffet Turns out puff adders are masters of the buffet. During peak feeding periods, the snakes increased their intake by twelve times their normal dietary needs. One snake even ballooned to more than 2kg, more than double its starting weight. That level of flexibility is practically unheard of in mammals, whose metabolic needs keep them on a tight leash. Let's translate: if puff adders were people, they'd gorge through the holidays on a dozen Christmas dinners, then not eat again until December. And they'd still be fine. These findings, published in Scientific Reports, debunk the long-held idea that snakes, being ectotherms with slow digestion, have little impact on prey populations. Not only can puff adders gobble up rodents at astonishing rates when prey is abundant, they can also wait out the lean years, lying low with metabolic grace. 'I estimate that some of these snakes could fast for over two years and still survive,' Alexander says. 'When rodents boom, puff adders switch on, consuming mice week after week. But when the prey disappears, they simply… switch off.' This ability offers a significant advantage over warm-blooded predators like mongooses or jackals, which must eat regularly or perish. Puff adders, with their secretive ways and ambush tactics, are perfectly adapted for ecological boom-and-bust cycles. They're like the ultimate freelance exterminators — no contract, no complaints. But there's more. By staying put and waiting for rodents to scurry by, puff adders mount what ecologists call a 'functional response' — an immediate adjustment in feeding and breeding rate based on prey availability. In the dusty corners of barns and the grassy fringes of maize fields, puff adders lie in ambush. And while their approach may be passive, the effect is anything but. 'Simple. Effective. Immediate.' 'When rodent numbers go up,' says Alexander, 'more rodents run past the snakes. And the snakes just eat more. Simple. Effective. Immediate.' Puff adders, the study suggests, act as ecosystem stabilisers — naturally damping down the rodent population explosions that wreak havoc on crops. And because they don't need frequent meals, their populations don't crash during the quiet years, like mammals often do. That alone should earn them some farmyard respect. But old fears die hard. Puff adders are responsible for the highest number of serious snake bites in Africa, due to their camouflage and tendency to stay still when threatened. But this reputation needs a rethink. According to data at a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, the fatality rate from puff adder bites is extremely low. In one study of nearly 900 hospitalised snakebite cases, not a single death was recorded. Still, Alexander admits he's been on the sharp end of a puff adder's fang. 'About 25 years ago I got bitten on the leg,' he says. 'It put me in ICU for nine days. But the real issue was the antivenom. I'm violently allergic to the horse serum it's made from — it stopped my heart.' It's a sobering reminder of the risks. But it hasn't dampened his enthusiasm. 'Some people say working with venomous snakes is heroic,' he laughs. 'Others say it's just stupid.' Each of the 18 snakes in his colony had its own personality, he adds — some were curious, others reclusive. This growing recognition of reptilian personality, even sentience, is changing how scientists view snakes. Strategic and adaptive 'Snakes aren't mindless machines,' Alexander says. 'They're remarkable animals — strategic, adaptive and vital to the ecosystems they live in.' So should farmers release puff adders into their barns? Not quite. Alexander cautions against artificially introducing snakes into new environments, which could disrupt local ecosystems. 'But if they're already there,' he says, 'don't kill them.' With snake antivenom production faltering in South Africa, and rodenticide poisoning creating knock-on effects across food chains, the case for protecting natural pest regulators has never been stronger. Most bites, Alexander says, result from trying to kill them. They respond to threats. Puff adders might not be cuddly, but they're efficient, low-maintenance, and — as Alexander's research shows — astonishingly good at their job. So next time you see a puff adder in your barn or near your wheat field, maybe hold off on the hoe. That fat, lazy, patterned lump might just be your best employee. DM
eNCA
02-06-2025
- eNCA
SA universities need R2-billion to save research programmes
JOHANNESBURG - South African universities are in crisis mode. The freeze in US funding has left major institutions scrambling to save critical health research programmes. In an urgent appeal, universities, led by the University of the Witwatersrand, have approached National Treasury, requesting R2-billion in local aid to prevent a collapse in research infrastructure that supports everything from HIV and reproductive health to broader public health systems. The freeze has already resulted in project terminations, staff retrenchments, and massive uncertainty with more cuts looming. Professor Glenda Gray has been at the forefront of HIV Aids research for decades.
