Art typically seems like a human activity, tied to culture, symbols, and personal expression. Yet a small group of animals has created paintings and designs that sold for surprising sums. Their work ...

Julien Benoit receives funding from the DSI-NRF African Origins Platform. A mysterious animal painted on a cave wall in South Africa’s Free State Province has long baffled scientists. Is it a walrus?

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: Scientists discovered 200-year-old rock art in South Africa depicting a tusked creature, possibly linked to the ancient horned serpent of San legend.

In the early 1970s, South African summer sun searing his back, 14-year-old Stephen Townley Bassett dutifully followed his uncle into the shade offered by one of myriad caves dotted among the Cederberg ...

Stare into the eyes of "The Watcher," British artist Sophie Green’s portrait of an African wild dog, and you’ll see there’s something reflected. A triangular outline, of a distant mountain perhaps, or ...

David M. Witelson is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand's Rock Art Research Institute (RARI). He receives funding from RARI and the University's Faculty of Science. In ...

Tom has a Master's degree in Journalism. His editorial work covers anything from archaeology and the environment to technology and culture. Tom has a Master's degree in Journalism. His editorial work ...

Rock art is widespread across southern Africa and includes a wide range of depictions such as human figures, animals, dots, handprints, and other painted or engraved imagery on rock surfaces. The rock ...

Some animals create paintings through training and enrichment, while others build complex, art-like structures in the wild without human involvement. High-value animal artworks reflect storytelling, ...