Beehive Fences in East Africa Protect Farms from Elephants

[dixiegrrrrl]

When trying to protect farms in east Africa from elephants, it would seem that nothing short of a giant reinforced fence or a chasmic ditch could safely keep the largest land animals on Earth away without causing harm. Unfortunately, building such barriers around every field is impractical, and the interactions of people protecting their crops frequently leads to accidents or even death of both farmers and elephants. But zoologist Lucy King had a much smaller idea: bees.

It turns out elephants are terrified of bees because when the insects sting the inside of their trunks the pain is excruciating and there’s little they can do about it. The sound of buzzing alone is enough to make elephants leave an area immediately. King wondered what might happen if a string of suspended beehives at every 10 meters around a field might be enough to keep elephants away. A pilot program in 2009 proved widely successful and soon The Elephant and Bees Project was born.

There are now active beehive fences in Kenya, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Sri Lanka. Not only do the fences help pollinate crops and safely deter elephants, they also become an additional revenue stream for farmers who harvest honey and sell it locally, a fascinating example of interspecies landscape engineering.

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/12/beehive-fences/

cool pics at link
plus
the site is very cool

[Warpy]

1. Now that's really neat

Not only do they save their fields from being trampled, they get to harvest the honey. As long as they don't dig their fields across established trails, which I'm sure they realize is a pretty dumb thing to do, there can be peaceful coexistence.

[retrowire]

2. AHHHH

It turns out elephants are terrified of bees because when the insects sting the inside of their trunks the pain is excruciating and there’s little they can do about it.

A beesting right in the nostril!? AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! THE PAINNNN

[IcyPeas]

3. "interspecies landscape engineering"

who knew there was such a thing. the mighty bee.

I think this is fantastic. It is a win-win it seems, good for the elephants, good for the farmers because now they have honey to sell too.

and then you end up with Elephant Friendly Honey.

[Zorra]

4. This is also an ancient form of defense against attack by human invaders.

Beehives flung by catapult or dropped from city walls upon attackers are other ways bees have successfully been used for defense throughout history.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Esp. if you use the very aggressive African bees! n/t

[countryjake]

6. "Elephant friendly Honey"...what a great idea!

Thanks for sharing, dixiegrrrrl. You're right, that is a cool site (the one about the guy who sews mushrooms is pretty neat, what a project)!