A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2014. / This dissertation provides an analysis of the faunal remains excavated from the BSV and BSS layers from Sibudu Cave, Kwa Zulu-Natal. Based on ceramics, presence of daga floors and glass beads found within the layers the BSV and BSS were classified as dating to the Iron Age period (AD 900-1660) . The met hod of analysis follows Driver (2005). The presence of taxa shows that na tural occupants, non-human predators and human occupants accumulated the faunal material in Sibudu Cave. The taxa identified provide strong indication that at this time the site was predominantly occupied by farmers, who hunted wild ungulates and gathered marine taxa. The occupants may have used the site as a temporary shelter between camps or settlements and coastal sites. There is also some indication that the cave was utilised for religious purposes .

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2016. / This project investigates the influence that rainfall and temperature patterns have on mammal drinking patterns at an artificial waterhole in KGNP at Nossob. On a regional scale, this project investigates long-term rainfall and temperature trends over three/four decades, and in some instances the past 100 years, respectively for KGNP using climate records from weather stations located within the park and adjacent areas. This project makes use of KGNP census data to observe spatio-temporal distributions of large mammals in relation to rainfall (and to a lesser extent temperature) variability. Investigations assess whether relationships exist between faunal movement and distribution and rainfall volume and frequency. On a local scale, this project makes use of webcam images measured at 15-second intervals to establish mammalian drinking patterns and waterhole use over a short time scale (October 2012 – December 2014). The climate data for Twee Rivieren, Mata-Mata, Nossob and Upington reveal statistically significant increases in Tmax (av. 0.04°C) over the study period, whilst in summary, mean regional temperatures have increased by almost 1.6°C over the past 40 years. Rainfall patterns have revealed a north to south gradient in KGNP, where the northern and central parts of the park are becoming drier and the southern parts are becoming wetter. This demonstrates rainfall variability throughout KGNP over the period 2004 - 2013. This study established a positive relationship between faunal distributions and rainfall patterns within the park, showing that certain species are highly reliant on rainfall as a source of drinking water. It has been established that herbivore species are more reliant on the water trough during the dry season, when surface water is not available. However, there is an even spread of carnivore species water trough usage during the wet and dry season throughout the year. It has been established that during rainfall events exceeding ca. 30mm, faunal species prefer to utilise the natural surface water rather than the artificial waterhole at Nossob. Water trough usage under different temperature thresholds has revealed that groups of species (carnivores and herbivores) drinking patterns shift to either earlier or later in the day when temperatures increase, in order to avoid heat stress. Changing rainfall patterns could drastically cause water shortages, which will negatively affect the amount of available drinking water for mammals within KGNP. This study is important in contributing to an improved management of KGNP through providing a quantitative description of the relationship of mammal visitation at water troughs to the ambient climate. This is particularly valuable as climate change projections for the region suggest progressive drying. Water troughs will become an important source of moisture. / LG2017

The cooling preceding the beginning of North American continental glaciation is beautifully represented by the thick fluvial and lacustrine sequences of the Pliocene Glenns Ferry Formation at the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument (HAFO), Idaho. This time interval is commonly studied because it contains the elevated global temperatures predicted to result from continued anthropogenic warming. The fossil mammals at HAFO were examined to see the effects of climate change on past mammalian assemblages. The nature of the fossiliferous localities at HAFO was documented to establish which localities could be considered in situ. Additionally, the structural architecture of the beds was mapped to establish an idealized stratigraphic datum to which localities were tied. This facilitated temporal comparison of the widespread localities at HAFO. Second, a high-resolution record of climate change was created using global climate models to predict which oceanic areas varied in temperature in concert with HAFO during the middle Pliocene. Data from deep-sea cores from those oceanic areas were combined to create a proxy temperature pattern; such a detailed record from terrestrial data in the Glenns Ferry Formation is not currently possible. Selected mammalian groups, carnivorans, insectivorans, and leporids, were examined in light of the established climatic patterns. The cooling through the lower portion of the Glenns Ferry Formation corresponds to variation in the morphology of individual species, the relative abundance of species, and the species-level diversity of mammalian groups. There is a return to warm temperatures near the top of the section at HAFO, and the mammals returned to the conditions exhibited before the cool-temperature extreme. This faunal resilience, however, occurred over hundreds of thousands of years. The final paleoecologic approach established correlations between the species diversity of groups of modern mammals and modern climatic values. Many modern groups were found to be highly-significantly correlated to climate, but when the established predictive equations were applied to HAFO, the results were variable. Estimates of annual precipitation varied widely, depending on the taxonomic group, and also deviated from precipitation estimates from sedimentology. Temperature patterns were more consistent with each other and with the pattern of the deep-sea core proxy. / text