Elephants are gentle giants. They are peaceful by nature, and won't attack unless they themselves feel attacked. But throughout the years in sub-Saharan Africa, elephants have struggled. Not only threatened by poachers but also by the ballooning population of humans whose farmlands encroach on the natural habitats of elephants. Thus, food sources have steadily decreased and the elephants have no other choice but to raid people's farms to scavenge for food. It's a problem that Dominique Gonçalves and a team of zoologists and ecologists are addressing.
At the moment, the issue is how to keep the elephants from crossing over the neighbors' fence and ransacking their crops. To begin with, many subsistence farmers in that region do not have the resources to put up expensive wire fences to keep large animals away. This led to instances when conflicts between elephants and humans arose. In one case, five farmers were trampled by elephants while they were out on the field harvesting crops.
After years of researching, Gonçalves' team found a very simple solution: bees. It turns out that the elephants are scared of bees, as much as we would be if we were being swarmed by aggressive buzzing bees. They lined fences along areas where elephants usually crossed toward the croplands. On some of the fences, they hung up beehives filled with one of the most aggressive bee species, the African bee. And they found that this reduced instances of elephants crossing over. For details on the rest of the study, check it out on Nautilus.
(Image credit: redcharlie/Unsplash)