Put bees next to mice on the list of things elephants are afraid of
Biologist Lucy King discovered this information when she read a study published in 2002 that explained elephants will not eat from acacia trees that house beehives. She then took this information one step further and applied this knowledge in an attempt to save Kenyan farms from being raided by local elephants. She set up bee hive fences on 17 farms, connecting wires to the hives so that every time an elephant approached the farm the shake of the wire would set the alarm and swarms of bees would immediately follow.
Her approach worked 93% of the time, keeping the majority of elephants away. And it worked because an elephant’s long memory reminds them of their first encounter with those stingers; they didn't like it the first time around and they definitely don't want to endure it again. This memory plays such a powerful role in the minds of these tusked animals that even the sound of a beehive, the notorious buzzing sound, can effectively scare them off. And while scampering away, they warn their surrounding friends about the bees using infrasonic communication. This is the same type of communication discussed in an earlier post about why elephants may be able to sense earthquakes before humans.
