The success story continues with this rather simple method to resolve human wildlife conflict.
How it began
Several months back Moses Ryakitimbo in Tanzania reached out to us. As the founder of ‘Alert for endangered wildlife species’ (AFeWiS) Moses was very concerned about elephants invading the farms bordering the Arusha National Park. After visiting with numerous farmers and doing a bit of research on methods to resolve human wildife conflict he came upon a viable solution. Elephants don’t like bees. Building beehive fences along crop land perimeters supposedly keep elephants away.
Moses sent us a proposal to build 10 beehives. If this phase one proved successful to resolve human wildlife conflicts with elephants, he envisioned beehive fences as a simple cost effective solution to a huge problem.
What do you know? Five of the first ten beehives we almost immediately occupied and kept elephants at bay! Read more…
Results of Phase One
With the success of Phase One a few things were noted. When beehives are closer together they make a stronger barrier. With this almost immediate success to resolve human wildlife conflict with elephants more farmers are inquiring about getting a beehive fence.
Phase Two
Phase Two with another ten beehives was initiated. This 20 beehive fence protects five farmers’ croplands. Based on the results of Phase One, two alterations were made…
- The design of the beehives was changed to last longer and accommodate the bees better
- The beehives were placed closer together to create a stronger barrier.
The downside of these changes are a) slightly more expensive beehives and b) more beehives needed.
Reports so far
The initial reports from Phase Two are coming in. Here’s what Moses wrote:
The new beehives donated by Nikela for phase two were installed on Thursday 18th of July 2019 and 13 days later, five beehives were already filled with bees.
“They have entered!” explained Mr. Baraka one of the farmers in the project who called us with the good news. A few days later. Mr. Baraka told us that the elephants came 5 times trying to cross into the farms, but the bees did a few attacks on them. The elephants responded by cutting a few trees as a sign of anger, walked by the farm borderlines and went to the next village.”
Sorry for the next village! Guess they’ll need beehive fences too!
I asked Moses about leaving corridors for the elephants. He replied that there are open areas for them to pass by the villages.
Bottom line, this method to resolve human wildlife conflict with elephants appears to be working well.
Another Problem
Moses’ major problem of course now is the ongoing funding to build more beehives.
Hi Guys,
I am very interested in trialing this for some of the communities in the northe-west Botswana.
Please tell me what is the optimum spacing per beehive?
Regards,
Modisa
It appears that Moses and his team have tried various spacing depending on terrain. However, they did discover that the first round of beehives were spaced too far apart. With the second phase they did place them closer together. With that said I will reach out to Moses and inquire for you. Watch this thread for more info.
This in from Moses…
“The ideal space is 1metre (one step) one beehive to the next. as you know the beehives need to stay closer not letting that big space for huge mammals to Cross, keeping in mind that elephants are huge mammals and so ” the trying to cross struggle” will give a sign to bees that they have a visitor. And also, the fenced wires from pole to pole and the one metre distance will give a sign that this isn’t a right place to cross.”