This Could “Bee” A Bright New Hope For Elephant Conservation

Watch This Video To See Why Beehive Fences Can Save Both Crops And Elephants

An adult African elephant weighs about 13,000 pounds. A single African honey bee weighs just .00025 of a pound. (Together, 4,000 bees weigh only one pound.) And yet… elephants are terrified of bees. They actively avoid them whenever possible. Though bee stings cannot penetrate an elephant’s thick hide, the elephant’s eyes, ears and trunk are incredibly sensitive. Acting on this astonishing fact, forward-thinking organizations are creating an important long term project to help keep elephants safe – and help to protect the farming communities that surround elephants’ habitats.

An elephant eats nearly 1,000 pounds of food per day. They are messy eaters, uprooting and scattering much of what they eat. If an elephant were to forage on farmland, the farmer could lose their entire crop during just one elephant “raid.” Sadly, elephants have been killed in retaliation.

Hwange is Zimbabwe’s largest National Park, just two hours south of Victoria Falls. More than 40,000 elephants live within Hwange’s 5657 square miles. Most of Hwange National Park has no fencing. Elephants can simply walk across rural roads. And when they do, they cause massive destruction of crops – wiping out the livelihood of local farmers.

In March 2019, we visited the exquisite The Hide Safari Camp inside Hwange. In addition to fabulous safari trips each morning and afternoon (we saw incredible game, including lion, sable antelope, African wild cat, jackal, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe – and, of course, lots of elephant), we had the privilege to learn about the important work of The Hide Community Trust, and to see several of its groundbreaking programs in action. (More on these in separate blog posts.)

The Hide Community Trust recognizes that local rural communities are in need of support, not charity. Its guiding principles are: Conservation, Community, Culture and Commerce.

This simple beehive fence keeps elephants out of Mr. Chidaya’s fields

A Cheap Natural Solution to Help People and Elephants Live Side By Side

“Beehive Fencing” is one of The Hide Community Trust’s groundbreaking projects. Developed first in Kenya by the Save The Elephants Foundation and the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, farmers erect simple beehives around the perimeter of their fields. The damage from crop-raiding elephants is already being reduced at the Hwange pilot project. Not only do the elephants steer clear of the fields with beehives on their perimeter, but these farmers then derive a benefit from important new crops: honey and wax.  A healthy bee population also ensures excellent crop pollination.

The Hide Community Trust’s simple yet effective project is a Win/Win for Hwange’s elephants and local farmers, and it’s great news for all of us who love elephants.

How To Support This Effort

If you’d like to donate to this program and you’re a US citizen, click Donate to The Hide Community Trust Beehive Fencing.

If you’re not a US citizen, then click here: The Hide Community Trust General Donation Page.

Your donation will go to providing materials to build beehive fences and education for farmers to adopt this smart practice.

If you’d like to stay at The Hide (which you’ll love), you can book directly at http://www.thehide.com/