Enter the elephant, a towering colossus, gigantic in strength, lording over the beasts of the forest. Enter his opponent: the bee, a piddling nonentity. The expression ‘squashed like a bug’ was devised for such moments. Yet Lucy King, a DPhil student from Oxford University, has shown that in the combat between elephant and bee, it is the latter which will claim the laurels. The bee is our biblical David. His insectile slingshot? His ‘buzz’.Oxford researchers made this groundbreaking discovery after installing hidden loudspeakers in trees where elephants regularly find shade. They played either buzzing sounds recorded at beehives or a control sound of white noise. While the white noise affected only under a third of elephants, within just eighty seconds of implementing the buzzing noises as much as eighty four percent of the elephant families had fled, many at a run. How do we explain the elephant’s terrifying fear of bees? Although elephants cannot be stung through their thick hides, the water around their eyes is vulnerable to stings, as is the sensitive inside of their trunks. The age old aphorism raises its trunk again: the elephant never forgets, so once stung, he will never risk battle with the bee again. But why are researchers wasting their time driving off elephants with imitation bees, if not for the comedy value? How can we benefit through this unveiling of the elephant’s Achilles Heel? Although, in Africa, elephants are a major asset, they also regularly embark on crop raids on local farms, and the economic damage caused to small-scale farmers can be crippling. Meanwhile, farmers, often resort to the shooting, spearing or poisoning of elephants. There is thus a real urgency in finding a practical solution. It is here that Lucy King, Oxford and the bees step in. Bees may just provide the perfect low cost deterrent method and a successful step towards achieving peaceful human-elephant relations. Thank science for that.
by Katie Duval
Gee Whiz: Elephants buzz off
