How Fences are Protecting Beehives from Elephants in Tanzania

By: Jerry Nelson

Farmers often have to defend their crops from pests. While these pests can range from microbes to insects to avians, imagine trying to prevent crop losses when the nuisance in question can tip the scales at 15,000 pounds, might be more than 10 feet tall, and is highly intelligent.

This is a problem that’s routinely faced by the small-scale subsistence farmers who live on the borders of Ruaha National Park in Tanzania. Wild elephants have learned how to raid crop fields, erasing months’ worth of work in mere hours and imperiling the farmers’ livelihoods. A solution to this gigantic problem has been found in the comparatively minuscule honeybee.