Elephants and Bees
My head turned abruptly at sudden action and loud trumpeting at the edge of my peripheral vision. I craned my neck to see what was happening from my cramped position on the floor of the safari vehicle. A family of 7 elephants, trunks and tails held high, were running pell-mell across the savannah. A large matriarch shook her head wildly as she raced towards us in panic, her family of young adults and youngsters doing their best to keep up. Surprised, I asked Julius “what’s up?”
“They’ve probably run into some bees,” he replied. Bees? Honeybees? Can you can imagine it? The most frightening thing to the largest mammal on earth is the tiny honeybee, not lions or other ferocious predators. Because of their size, strength, and intelligence, elephants can take care of themselves when faced with most dangers. Only environmental disasters like prolonged drought or human-wildlife conflict pose any real threats to their survival. But bees terrify them.
The African bee cannot sting through the tough hide of an elephant; however, they swarm aggressively and can attack an elephant’s sensitive trunk, mouth, and eyes. Elephants have excellent hearing so if they hear buzzing from a nearby hive, they will sound the alarm and run! This video is what that sounded and looked like as I lay there on the floor of the land cruiser.
Conservationists are using this knowledge of elephants and bees to protect farmers' crops from marauding elephants who sneak into fields at night for an easy late-night meal. I recall watching with fascination as an elephant in Lakipia, Northern Kenya, carefully lifted an electric wire with his tusks so he could slip through the fence built specifically to keep elephants away from crops.
Save the Elephants, a nonprofit conservationist group, is building wire and beehive fences along farmers’ fields to keep elephants out while also providing a modest income to the farmer from the honey harvest. These beehive barriers cost 20% less than the expense of an electric fence. Talk about a brilliant solution! Check out this video showing how this works.
This story gives me hope. If we listen and carefully observe wildlife, often a win-win solution is possible. We don’t have to be aggressive and cruel. Hunting, barbaric snares, and poisonous arrows account for significant injuries and harm to endangered elephant herds. This David and Goliath story can teach us a lot about how to co-exist with wildlife on our planet.
