Elephants fear bees, not mice
Elephants fear the sound of disturbed bees
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Tuesday, 09, Oct 2007 10:07
Elephants are far more afraid of bees than the stereotypical image of their fear of mice, researchers have found.
When the sound of disturbed bees was played to families of elephants the majority moved away from their setting.
This finding could lead to strategies to deter the creatures from entering areas they should not, a report published in the journal Current Biology says.
Researchers tested the response of several well-known elephant families in Kenya to the digitally-recorded sound of disturbed African bees.
Sixteen of the 17 families tested left their places under trees within 80 seconds of being played the bee sounds. Half of this number responded within just ten seconds.
Among elephant families played the control sound of white noise, none had moved within ten seconds and only four families moved after 80 seconds.
"We weren't surprised that they responded to the threatening sound of disturbed bees, as elephants are intelligent animals that are intimately aware of their surroundings, but we were surprised at how quickly they responded to the sounds by running away," said Lucy King of the University of Oxford.
The discovery suggests that bees could become one of the deterrents used by farmers and conservation managers across Kenya, potentially reducing incidents of problem elephants being shot.
"If we could use bees to reduce elephant crop raiding and tree destruction while at the same time enhancing local income through the sale of honey, this could be a significant and valuable step towards sustainable human-elephant coexistence," explained Ms King.