Bees help tackle elephant-human conflict in Kenya

AFP English

Kenya's growing elephant population and increasing human encroachment on their habitat is making a peaceful coexistence difficult. Now farmers in Taita-Taveta county, near Tsavo National Park, are protecting their crops with an innovative program by Save the Elephants charity - using African honeybees to deter the giant mammals who fear the tiny insect. "I think people are surprised how well they work, and it's a nice nature-based solution as well," says the project’s lead, Ewan Brenan.

Transcript

00:00I

00:30When there are crops inside the farm where the farmer has been faced with the beehives,

00:38you find that when the elephants approach the farmer and they would like to rain, you

00:44normally push the wire like this and you find that the hives will shake, the bees will come

00:50out and the bees will attack the elephants around the ears and the trunk.

00:56Another thing is that once the elephants hear the sound of the bees and the smell, they run away.

01:16Yeah, I mean African honeybees are scary things, right?

01:19There's a reason that a six, seven ton bull elephant will run away just from the sound

01:23of African honeybees.

01:25So yeah, I think people are surprised how well they work and it's a nice nature-based

01:30solution as well.

01:54I think it's a very good solution.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended