Farmers, Elephants, and Bees

[Zikes]

Man, that's a crazy good idea. First, it's 85% effective in solving the elephant problem; second, free honey which makes the fence a profitable venture in its own right; and third, the bees will pollinate the crops they're protecting, potentially maximizing crop yield.

[zeteo]

Free honey? Beekeeping is actually a lot of work (especially when the hives are spread out like this). Also they say it's up to 85% effective, so that's the maximum not the average.

[nostromo]

The original problem is that farms are blocking elephant migration paths. "The elephants’ key migratory routes have been cut off in many places."

And now you've replaced a fence that they can break through with a fence made of bees. Yes, this is probably good for the humans, but I don't see how it's better for the elephants.

[rosser]

From TFA, above the photo of Ms. King standing next to a hive fence, "The farmers leave wide pathways between their crops so elephants can move past the fences along their migratory routes."

[ceejayoz]

> Yes, this is probably good for the humans, but I don't see how it's better for the elephants.

Well, now they don't get shot, presumably.

[randomafrican]

That's not the only problem. In many places the elephant population is overgrowing the reserve sonthey get out.

And few people would be verynpleased with an elephant going through their crops.

[TallGuyShort]

Brilliant! I'm a little confused by this line though:

>> If an elephant makes contact with one of the hives or the connecting wires, the beehives all along the fence will swing and release the bees.

The first part made it sound like elephants would stay away from this perimeter just because there was an active beehive, so it's unlikely the elephant would get close to the fence anyway. But then if it does, wouldn't the sudden release of all bees drive the elephant into a panic precisely when it's choices are to run into the field or away from the fence? Or am I just misunderstanding something?

[maxmcd]

I was confused about this as well. The construction manual is much more specific. More information on page 4: http://www.elephantsandbees.com/research_project/Beehive_Fen...

It seems that fences are set up to prevent elephants from entering entirely. Although they are spaced widely (and a weak breakaway trip wire is strung from hive to hive), so that if an elephant is trapped, or approaches the fence violently, it can still pass through without damaging the hives.

I'm guessing that has to do with their 85% effectiveness. Most of the time the fences work, but when they don't they want to minimize hive damage.

[barristan]

They do say an elephant never forgets. It's possible that after stomping through the fence and releasing all the bees the elephant simply continues to charge into the field. But once the elephant is shooed out of the field, the next time it considers entering, it will remember the bees and might reconsider.

It's also possible the elephant doesn't stomp through the fence, but simply meanders toward it until it feels the wire. After which some of the bees come out and the elephant simply decides to not break through the wire and to instead return from where it came.

[msandford]

I wish there was some way for her to profit off of the idea not for the sake of getting rich but to encourage others to take a look at solving other problems. Profits as signalling rather than for the sake of profits.

[maxerickson]

It says in the article she was given an environmental prize. It's $100,000:

http://www.thestandrewsprize.com/lists/2013.htm

[frogpelt]

Interesting notion. You want her to profit but not to get rich. It's amazing how being rich has been demonized by society of late.

Profit for the sake of profit works as signalling just as well as any other profit.

[grecy]

We just need more people who's motivations are not monetary.

Take a look at your average soup-kitchen volunteer - they're the kind of people we need.

[grimtrigger]

I have to wonder, why are these kind of solutions driven by outside players instead of local communities? Is there some kind of informational advantage the locals don't have? Elephants scares bees seems so simple that I'm not sure why locals weren't already doing it.

[icegreentea]

Firstly, there are all sorts of biases involved. We're far more likely to hear about situations like these, than native development of solutions.

Secondly, there is a non-trivial cost to thinking up ideas and experimenting. Beyond costing time and resources that the farmers may not have/may not want to spend, experimenting as a whole is pretty risking. Being an outside player with far greater ability to take on risk has an obvious advantage.

Thirdly, while the farmers probably don't want to fight elephants, in the scheme of things, they probably individually rate the well being of elephants lower than their survival. We on the other hand probably rate the importance of the two far more equally, and thus have a greater incentive to solve the problem in such a way.

[DanBC]

Lots of ideas seem really simple with the benefit of hindsight.

Here's an idea that took someone 30 years to come up with.

(http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94996/GLOBAL-Follow-the-fizz-...)

But it's really obvious! Why wasn't anyone doing this before?

[randomafrican]

Incentives.

For many locals, just shooting the elephants would be the solution. Outsiders care about the elephants and the humans (most of the times, in that order).

[apalmer]

I like the ingenuity of it, seems pretty counter intuitive though. I mean keeping the elephants away by bring swarms of african killer bees into close proximity with humans... not sure if the trade off is worth it. There is a reason elephants are afraid of them.

That being said I am sure the farmers understand the risks more than I do, if they are down with it seems like a good solution

[durkie]

"Killer" is a misnomer -- in the beekeeping community, for obvious reasons, they prefer the term "africanized". And it is likely that these bees, being in Africa, are or will very soon be africanized.

But it is still possible to safely and enjoyably keep and tend Africanized bees -- you just require some extra precautions, like smoking the hell out of them when you're working the hive, and leaving your protective gear on even after you're far from the hive.

A friend of mine did beekeeping in Paraguay through the Peace Corps (the last country featuring a Peace Corps beekeeping program), and said bees would still be ramming his face veil, even after walking several kilometers away from the hive.

That was, however, after he had been working them for anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. Generally bees don't bother you if you're not bothering them. And if they do, you might just wear a veil when harvesting the crops closest to the fence.

[dspeyer]

"Killer" bees are africanized. That is, they are european/african crossbreeds. These are simply african bees. Much safer.

[to3m]

Who says they are killer bees?!

[mikeash]

Occasionally suffer a relatively harmless sting from a bee versus have elephants destroy your livelihood... doesn't really seem like a difficult choice to me.

[scrapcode]

This is what innovation actually looks like.

[666_howitzer]

I would have just used loud speakers which made "buzz" sound , hooked it onto a motion sensor and PV for power. Voila! Problem solved.

[protomyth]

That tends to get you "the boy who cried wolf" effect and is often eventually ignored by animals.

[gcb0]

it all makes it sound like taking care of 200 hives per Km is an effortless task.

[lostlogin]

Not effortless and not easy - but not unrewarded. Farms pay to have hives for pollination here - a weekly fee.

[Ihmahr]

85% effective, but once the elephant is in he might not want to go out.

[leeoniya]

i wonder what happens in the 15% of cases when it's not effective, do the destroyed bees nests unleash a swarm of African bees on all bystanders?

[grecy]

..and do the elephants get tangled up in the wires connecting the separate hives?

[rhjacmason]

good idea

[13b9f227ecf0]

I'm sick of near daily hearing about white people "helping" Africans and African animals. Let the Africans run Africa in their own way.

[milliams]

Bees?!