Elephants are one of the biggest wonders on our planet. Weighing between 3-to-4-ton Asian elephants eat over 150 kg of vegetation a day. As wildlife habitats are continuously shrinking and cultivated lands are pushing closer to the borders of protected areas, elephants enter crop fields in the search of food. The damage inflicted by a single elephant during one night of crop raiding can have a devastating effect on a family’s livelihood. Annually, elephant crop raiding leads to the destruction of millions of dollars in agricultural products as well as the life of hundreds of people and elephants (Sukumar, 2006). Most of the existing mitigation methods, such as electric fences, require a high investment, deeming them unaffordable for small-scale farmers.
Despite the fact that elephants’ bodies are covered with thick skin, there are still some areas which are especially sensitive to parasites and bee stings (Vollrath & Douglas-Hamilton, 2002). African honeybees (Apis mellifera scutellate) are notorious for their aggression, and in some cases have chased elephants for kilometers, causing whole elephant herds to stampede (Vollrath & Douglas-Hamilton, 2002). Due to their high aggression levels, studies have found that African honeybees are an efficient and affordable method for deterring African elephants from entering crop fields (King et al., 2009). Can this solution also be implemented in Asia?
To answer this question, we needed to separately examine the behaviors of the two species so we asked two questions: 1. Which of the honey bee species currently living in Asia is the most aggressive and therefore more suitable for the task? 2. How would Asian elephants react to beehives that blocked their way to a desired source of food?
The experiment was supposed to include eight elephants, but as you can see the video, Mai Noi decided not to participate.
In 2018 I conducted two separate experiments to answer these questions (Dror et al., 2020). The first experiment was conducted at the campus of King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand. Together with a group of research assistants and under the supervision of Dr. Orawan Duangphakdee, we compared the beehive defense reaction of Asian honey bees (Apis cerana) and European honey bees (Apis mellifera). Considering that both bee species are used for the cultivation of honey, we were not surprised to find that both species exhibited only very low levels of aggression. As the European honey bee is easier to cultivate, we decided to include this specie in our second experiment which examined whether Asian elephants would avoid approaching honeybees.
This experiment took place at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, at Chang Rai, in the north of Thailand. We placed bananas and sugarcane (food that elephants like) behind a wire that held three beehives. In order to get to the food, the seven captive elephants that we tested, had to cross the wire. The wire itself was made out of a long piece of strong rope which was held by week ropes.
Prea lifting the wire and removing it from the pole that held it so she can easily cross without breaking it.
We expected that the elephants will push against the rope causing the weak points to break thereby shaking the beehives. Some of the elephants we tested did indeed do so, but some found other creative ways to cross the line. One elephant decided to simply chew the strong rope (cutting it into pieces and making it very difficult for me to continue the experiment). Prea, another elephant that participated in the experiment (shown in this video) simply unhooked the rope and placed it on the floor, so she could easily pass above it.
Overall, the elephants did not seem to pay any attention to the beehives (except Lena, the elephant in the video, that enjoyed kicking the hives around) so we had to determine that this is not an efficient way to deter Asian elephants.
References: Dror S., Harich F., Duangphakdee O., Savini T., Pogány Á., Roberts J., Geheran J., Treydte C.A. Are Asian elephants afraid of honeybees? Experimental studies in northern Thailand. Mammalian Biology, 2020, 100: 355-363.
Video demonstrating the elephants general reaction towards the bees- they were not impressed.