[Pollinator] Huffington Post: Elephants Fear Bees, New Research Shows

[Jennifer Tsang]

Thanks to Mary Clock-Rust for forwarding the below:

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/05/elephants-fear-bees-new-r_n_564404.
html 


Elephants
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/05/elephants-fear-bees-new-r_n_564404
.html>  Fear Bees, New Research Shows 


KATHARINE
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/05/elephants-fear-bees-new-r_n_564404
.html?view=print>  HOURELD 

JOHANNESBURG - Eek, a bee!

Lore has it that elephants are afraid of mice, but scientists have now
discovered that elephants are truly afraid of bees - and that the pachyderms
even sound an alarm when they encounter them. The researchers hope this
discovery can help save farmers' crops from elephants.

And they hope it will save elephants too.

Conflict between humans and elephants in countries like Kenya occur often. A
single hungry elephant can wipe out a family's crops overnight. Farmers will
huddle by fires all night during the harvest season. When an elephant nears,
the farmers spring up with flaming sticks while their children bang on pots
and pans. Not all fields can be guarded, and sometimes the elephants aren't
frightened off.

Farmers sometimes kill elephants for raiding their crops. Rampaging
elephants have also killed people, and they are then hunted down by park
rangers.

The discovery that elephants emit low-frequency alarm calls around bees
could help lessen these conflicts, said Lucy King, a researcher into animal
behavior whose paper on elephants alarm calls was published in a journal of
the Public Library of Science last week.

Farmers could make "bee fences" by stringing up hives on poles around ten
meters (yards) apart, King said. A strong wire connecting the poles would
cause them to swing when an elephant walks into it, disturbing the bees. The
swarm bothers elephants so much that they flee, emitting low rumblings
inaudible to the human ear that warn other elephants nearby.

"It's impossible to cover Africa in electric fences," King said in an
interview. "The infrastructure doesn't exist in many places and it would
restrict animals' movement. This could be a better way to direct elephants
away from farmers' crops."

King's findings are based on two separate experiments, part of a project by
Oxford University and Save the Elephants. In the first, she played recorded
bee sounds near elephants, causing them to flee. The researchers noticed
that elephants distant from the sound also moved away, leading them to
speculate the elephants were communicating an alarm below the range of human
hearing.

For her second experiment, King hung ultra-sensitive microphones from trees.
She recorded elephant rumblings over a two-month experiment in Kenya's
Samburu park.

"We put the speaker in a bush quite away from the car. We didn't want to get
charged by mistake," she said.

She then played the sounds back to elephants. When they heard the recorded
rumblings they moved away, confirming the researchers' hunch about alarm
calls.

King said further research is needed before her findings can be put to wide
use. But she's hopeful they can help find a solution to some of the 1,300
complaints the Kenya Wildlife Service records about elephant-human contact
each year. Many elephants in Africa don't live in the protected confines of
a national park.

The findings have generated some excitement.

"This sort of initiative is very encouraging in helping prevent human
wildlife conflict," said Paul Udoto, a spokesman for KWS.

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