Elephants flee from bees, smell of honey
BEEHIVES could be used as a successful deterrent against elephants living close to human communities in southern Africa, according to recent research.
The research, published in the South African Journal of Science, concluded that a combination of the sound of buzzing bees and a honey scent caused most elephants to flee.
“An active beehive emitting a combination of auditory and olfactory (sense of smell) cues was a viable deterrent,” said the article.
When elephants enter crop fields for food they could cause significant damage, called crop raiding.
Emma Devereux, of the Organisation for Tropical Studies in the Kruger National Park, said that elephants’ large dietary requirements led them outside protected areas.
“Elephants once roamed freely over massive ranges of the African continent, today these iconic mammals are restricted to confined protected areas surrounded by human settlements.
“Unfortunately, when elephants venture into these human settlements, they cause significant damages to crops and property resulting in major financial losses to rural farmers,” she said.
The expansion of human set- tlements into elephant territory and an increasing elephant population in confined areas has resulted in human and elephant conflicts in many southern African communities, according to the article. However, elephants have been shown to avoid beehives, making it a potential safe deterrent by having beehives near crops.
“It has been suggested that any elephant that has encountered an active beehive before in its lifetime will associate the presence of bees (mainly auditory and olfactory cues) with the pain of a bee sting,” said Devereux.
Crop raiding has caused increased human-elephant conflict, which has also posed a threat to the conservation efforts for elephants.
“Elephant deterrents not only provide solutions to reduce crop raiding and mitigate human-elephant conflict, but also offer alternatives to the lethal management (culling) of problem animals, which consequently contributes to the long-term conservation of the species,” she said.
“We are setting up experimental trials in the Kruger Park to test our hypothesis that live bees represent a promising tool for managing elephant movement and landscape utilisation within a protected area,” said Devereux. – African News Agency