JOHANNESBURG — Eek, a bee!
Lore has it that elephants are afraid of mice, but scientists have now discovered that elephants are truly afraid of bees – and that the pachyderms even sound an alarm when they encounter them. The researchers hope this discovery can help save farmers' crops from elephants...
The discovery that elephants emit low-frequency alarm calls around bees could help lessen these conflicts, said Lucy King, a researcher into animal behavior whose paper on elephants alarm calls was published in a journal of the Public Library of Science last week.
Farmers could make "bee fences" by stringing up hives on poles around ten meters (yards) apart, King said. A strong wire connecting the poles would cause them to swing when an elephant walks into it, disturbing the bees. The swarm bothers elephants so much that they flee, emitting low rumblings inaudible to the human ear that warn other elephants nearby.
"It's impossible to cover Africa in electric fences," King said in an interview. "The infrastructure doesn't exist in many places and it would restrict animals' movement. This could be a better way to direct elephants away from farmers' crops."
New Bees can't post links so I copied part of this story from Huffington Post. If you want to read the whole story, Google is your friend.
:lol:
Pollination, food, entertainment and now guard duty. I love it.