Elephants and Bees is an organization that uses

african bees The East African lowland honey bee (''Apis mellifera scutellata'') is a subspecies of the western honey bee. It is native to central, southern and eastern Africa, though at the southern extreme it is replaced by the Cape honey bee (''Apis mellife ...

to reduce the problem of

elephants Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae and ...

destroying crops on

small farm Small may refer to: Science and technology * SMALL, an ALGOL-like programming language * Small (anatomy), the lumbar region of the back * ''Small'' (journal), a nano-science publication * <small>, an HTML element that defines smaller text ...

s in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

Method

A fence of beehives is built around a farm. The beehives are connected to each other with strong wires. If an elephant approaches the fence and bumps the wire, the bee hives are shaken, and the bees swarm to attack the threat. Although the elephant hide is very thick, bees can deliver significant pain by attacking vulnerable areas such as ears, eyes, and trunks. Furthermore, when an African bee stings an elephant, it might release a

pheromone A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...

that encourages additional bees to focus on that victim. Once elephants have been attacked by bees, they remember the experience, and pass that information to other members of the herd, and so when they approach the farm, the noise from the beehives can be sufficient to cause the elephants to retreat. In addition to keeping elephants from destroying the crops, the beehives provide pollination for the crops, as well as a source of honey, which the farmers can eat or sell.

History

The organization was started by

Iain Douglas-Hamilton Iain Douglas-Hamilton (born 16 August 1942) is a British zoologist known for his study of elephants. He earned both a BSc in biology and a D.Phil. in zoology from Oriel College, Oxford, and he is the recipient of the 2010 Indianapolis Prize f ...

in 2006 by

Save the Elephants Save the Elephants (STE) is a UK registered charity based in Kenya founded in September 1993 by Iain Douglas-Hamilton. Save the Elephants works to sustain elephant populations and preserve the habitats in which elephants are found, while at the ...

to test methods to reduce elephant-human conflicts. Additional funding was provided by

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

Conservation Fund.

References

External links

Official SiteSave the Elephant, the parent organization
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elephants and Bees Wildlife conservation in Kenya Nature conservation organisations based in the United Kingdom Animal charities based in the United Kingdom Elephant conservation organizations Organizations established in 2006 Animal welfare organisations based in Kenya 2006 establishments in the United Kingdom