The beehives house hundreds of honey bees while artificial beehives or ‘dummy hives’ are hung every ten meters and linked together. Lucy King found a way to deter elephants from these local communities and dangerous areas. Using this information, Save the Elephants and Disney worked together to eliminate encounters between human farmland and hungry elephants using bee fences.īy creating a fence made up of both beehives and artificial bee hives, Dr. Vocal recordings of this interaction catch the elephants grumbling in a way that warns elephants nearby. The researchers tested this theory by playing recordings of bee sounds near elephant herds and watching as the elephants began shaking off the “bees” and running away. After research and experimentation was conducted by Save the Elephants and Disney, this claim was proven to be true elephants are scared of bees. They saw one tree that remained untouched, and the tribesmen explained that this was because there was a bees nest in that tree that deterred the elephants away. Local tribesmen and conservationists at Save the Elephants found the solution to this interaction while walking amongst trees that elephants had destroyed. There needed to be a nonviolent solution that not only kept elephants safe, but allowed families who had been growing crops on the same land for generations to continue their work. Elephants, being herbivores, are attracted to plant farms and one small herd can ruin a family’s year-supply of food in mere hours. As elephants find their homes shrinking they are forced to look elsewhere for new sources of food. The human population in Africa is sharply rising year over year and with it, a steep decrease in the amount of habitat available for elephants. Her award winning work has done wonders for the elephant population, the honey bees, and the surrounding communities who are working hard to build a livelihood for their families.Īs much as we love elephants, it is sad to say that human interaction is one of the biggest threats they now face. Lucy King was brought up in Somalia, Lesotho and Kenya, and has been researching the use of honey bees as a natural deterrent for crop-raiding elephants since 2006. Lucy King? She is an integral part of the Save the Elephants team whose research has been pivotal in creating coexistence between elephants and the local communities around them. Lucy King used this knowledge to launch an award winning research project called the “Elephants and Bees Project” that now saves elephants’ lives and protects farmers’ livelihoods. Would you believe us if we told you that the massive, almighty elephant is terrified of the tiny African Honey Bee? Well, best believe it because it’s true! In fact, Dr.
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