To protect rural African farms from elephant crop-raiding and tree destruction, Save the Elephants devised a simple yet brilliant solution to reconcile the conflicts between elephants and humans.
In a project called Elephants and Bees, their solution came in the form of beehive fences! Ingenious? Absolutely.
The brainchild of zoologist Lucy King, the innovative project has been proven to successfully deter crop-raiding elephants (since its initial test run in 2009), hence protecting rural farms in Africa.
The beehive fences consist of strings of wire with beehives that are spaced out 10 meters apart from one another.
Approaching elephants disturb the bees once they hit the wiring. This will cause the bees to emerge from their hives and scare off the elephants. Since elephants are naturally terrified of the little creatures (because of bee stings, for sure) they will avoid areas where the buzzing of bees can be heard, thus effectively fostering “sustainable human-elephant coexistence”.
These brilliant structures are currently located in Kenya, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Sri Lanka.
The organization is currently seeking funding to continue expanding their project. If you want to help them secure a safer future for both elephants and the people that live amongst them, you can do so here.
Via My Modern Met