Elephants and Bees: Mother Nature Provides Possible Solution to Elephant Conservation in Africa

Anne here. I smiled just now, reading this Scientific Daily article Beehive Fence Deters Elephant Raiders.

A totally natural, innately simplistic attempt to contain damage done to crops in Africa by foraging elephants is working.

The big news is that in a pilot study in Kenya, a farm protected by a beehive fence had 86 percent fewer succesful crop raids by elephants and 150 percent fewer raiding elephants than a control farm without the fence.

In the ongoing battle between man and elephants in Africa, settlers feel justified in protecting their lands from elephant-waged crop destruction, with the result being death for globally beloved and shrinking elephants populations.

Scientists speculate that the reason why the experiment worked — after all, there were no bees in the hives — is linked to the fact that the elephants remember painful past encounters with African honeybees and avoid the sights and smells associated with them.

In what might be a win-win for both sides, the beehive fence design is robust enough to survive elephant raids and cheap enough for farmers to construct themselves. As an added benefit, when farmer add real honey bees to the hives, they have a honey crop to sell.A

Read more from Anne: The Threat of Elephant Extinction is Real

Elephants: A Love and Hate Relationship When Sharing Natural Habitats