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30 August 2022 | Story Edzani Nephalela | Photo Lethabo Machabaphala
From the left; Dr Marinkie Madiope, UFS South Campus Principal and founder of the UFS Women's Forum; Advocate Nthabiseng Sepanya-Mogale, Commissioner for Gender Equality: Free State province and Advocate at Oxford Chambers; Dr Molapo Qhobela, UFS Vice-Rector: Institutional Change, Strategic Partnerships, and Societal Impact, Pinky Kekana, Deputy Minister in the Presidency, and Zola Thamae, Acting Head of the Free State Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation.

“Most people believe that Women's Month celebrations are primarily for women, because issues discussed during these events are related to women. However, have you considered including men in these discussions to achieve gender equality? Do men understand how women want to be treated and cared for?” Pinky Kekana, Deputy Minister in the Presidency, spoke during the Women’s Month commemoration at the University of the Free State (UFS) South Campus on 16 August 2022.

This was the first gender-inclusive event, following the collaboration between the UFS Women's Forum, South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID), and Grootvlei Correctional Services

Some of the delegates who attended this prestigious event, included Dr Marinkie Madiope, UFS South Campus Principal and founder of the UFS Women's Forum; Advocate Nthabiseng Sepanya-Mogale, Commissioner for Gender Equality: Free State province and Advocate at Oxford Chambers; Zola Thamae, Acting Head of the Free State Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation; and Commissioner Jacky Reid-Moses, Correctional Services Area Commissioner for the Free State and Northern Cape regions.

Following the welcome by Dr Molapo Qhobela, UFS Vice-Rector: Institutional Change, Strategic Partnerships, and Societal Impact, Thandeka Mosholi, Assistant Director: School of Open Learning, deliberated the significance of women. She emphasised that women do more than bear children; they are also specialists in their fields and should be regarded for various managerial roles. 

“There are many opportunities for women, and men should not feel threatened when women occupy them; rather, they should support and encourage them, as they strive to be the best they can be. Generational equality should be used as a catalyst for us to drive gender equality. We need to be innovative and guarantee that boys and girls participate in things like domestic duties from a young age,” Mosholi stressed.

However, gender-based violence (GBV), sexual harassment, and murder are still significant issues, with various organisations trying to address and curb these socio-economic ills. Advocate Sepanya-Mogale said that it has become increasingly challenging to feel safe even in our own comfortable spaces. “If there are pastors and teachers out there who are taking advantage of our children, then we will continue to look over our shoulders. What happened to churches being our place of refuge and old generation teachers being faces of the community?” said Advocate Sepanya-Mogale. 

All the speakers encouraged women to take a position in the community, solidify their relationships, assimilate into the world of innovation and 4IR, and invite males into conversations that serve women's interests.

(From Left: Thandeka Mosholi, Assistant Director: School of Open Learning UFS; Dr Marinkie Madiope; Advocate Nthabiseng Sepanya-Mogale; Dr Molapo Qhobela; Pinky Kekana; Zola Thamae, and Spa Kabane, Director at the Free State Office of the Premier. Photo: Lethabo Machabaphala)

Educational session and future endeavours 

In addition to the commemoration, this event was concluded with an educational session dialogue. This session was divided into four groups, including both males and females, tapping into real-life experiences. It addressed issues of peace and security, facilitated by SAWID; rehabilitation and integration of inmates into communities, by the Grootvlei Correctional Management Unit; financial management, by Standard Bank; and GBV, enabled by the UFS Women’s Forum.

The perspectives and experiences shared by the attendees will be collated by the facilitators and handed over to the Deputy Minister in the Presidency to guide her strategy and plan.
 

News Archive

Studies to reveal correlation between terrain, energy use, and giraffe locomotion
2016-11-18



More than half of giraffes in captivity in Europe are afflicted by lameness. This high prevalence represents an important welfare issue, similar to other large zoo animals.

According to Dr Chris Basu, a veterinarian at the Royal Veterinary College in the UK, giraffes in captivity are often afflicted by overgrown hooves, laminitis and joint problems. Diagnosis and treatment is limited by our understanding of anatomy and function, more specifically the locomotion of these animals. Although the giraffe is such a well-known and iconic animal, relatively little has been studied about their locomotor behaviour.

Dr Basu recently visited South Africa to do fieldwork on the locomotion of giraffes as part of his PhD studies under the mentorship of world-renowned Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics, Prof John Hutchinson. This project is a joint venture between Dr Basu and Dr Francois Deacon, researcher in the Department of Animal, Wildlife, and Grassland Sciences at the UFS. Dr Deacon is a specialist in giraffe habitat-related research. 

Together Prof Hutchinson and Drs Deacon and Basu form a research group, working on studies about giraffe locomotion.

Wild giraffe population decrease by 40% in past decade

“Locomotion is one of the most common animal behaviours and comes with a significant daily energetic cost. Studying locomotion of wild animals aids us in making estimates of this energetic cost. Such estimates are useful in understanding how giraffes fit into ecosystems. Future conservation efforts will be influenced by knowledge of the energy demands in giraffes.

“Understanding aspects of giraffe locomotion also helps us to understand the relationships between anatomy, function and evolution. This is relevant to our basic understanding of the natural world, as well as to conservation and veterinary issues,” said Dr Deacon.

Locomotion study brings strategy for specialist foot care

On face value it seems as if foot disease pathologies are more common in zoo giraffes than in wild giraffes. “However, we need a good sample of data from both populations to prove this assumption,” said Dr Basu. 

This phenomenon is not well understood at the moment, but it’s thought that diet, substrate (e.g. concrete, straw, sand and grass) and genetics play a part in foot disease in giraffes. “Understanding how the feet are mechanically loaded during common activities (standing, walking, running) gives our research group ideas of where the highest strains occur, and later how these can be reduced through corrective foot trimming,” said Dr Basu.

Through the studies on giraffe locomotion, the research group plans to devise strategies for corrective foot trimming. At the moment, foot trimming is done with the best evidence available, which is extrapolation from closely related animals such as cattle. “But we know that giraffes’ specialist anatomy will likely demand specialist foot care,” Dr Basu said.

Studying giraffes in smaller versus larger spaces

The research group has begun to study the biomechanics of giraffe walking by looking at the kinematics (the movement) and the kinetics (the forces involved in movement) during walking strides. For this he studied adult giraffes at three zoological parks in the UK. 

However, due to the close proximity of fencing and buildings, it is not practical to study fast speeds in a zoo setting. 

A setting such as the Willem Pretorius Nature Reserve, near Ventersburg in the Free State, Kwaggafontein Nature Reserve, near Colesberg in the Karoo, and the Woodland Hills Wildlife Estate in Bloemfontein are all ideal for studying crucial aspects such as “faster than walking” speeds and gaits to measure key parameters (such as stride length, step frequency and stride duration). These studies are important to understand how giraffe form and function are adapted to their full range of locomotor behaviours. It also helps to comprehend the limits on athletic capacity in giraffes and how these compare to other animals. 

Drones open up unique opportunities for studying giraffes

The increasing availability of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)/drones opens up unique opportunities for studying locomotion in animals like giraffes. Cameras mounted onto remotely controlled UAVs are a straightforward way to obtain high-quality video footage of giraffes while they run at different speeds.

“Using two UAVs, we have collected high definition slow motion video footage of galloping giraffes from three locations in the Free State. We have also collected detailed information about the terrain that the giraffes walked and ran across. From this we have created 3D maps of the ground. These maps will be used to examine the preferred terrain types for giraffes, and to see how different terrains affect their locomotion and energy use,” said Dr Deacon.

“The raw data (videos) will be digitised to obtain the stride parameters and limb angles of the animals. Later this will be combined with anatomical data and an estimation of limb forces to estimate the power output of the limbs and how that changes between different terrains,” said Dr Basu.


Related articles:

23 August 2016: Research on locomotion of giraffes valuable for conservation of this species
9 March 2016:Giraffe research broadcast on National Geographic channel
18 Sept 2015 Researchers reach out across continents in giraffe research
29 May 2015: Researchers international leaders in satellite tracking in the wildlife environment

 

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