Elephant populations in Africa are declining. One major factor in the decline is habitat loss. If you’ve lived at all, you know what makes a downward spiral into a spiral. When things go wrong, we are often challenged to do more and more . . . with less and less. So are the elephants.
Without a habitat rich in food, they start going out to eat in places where food is abundant: farms. Unfortunately, food produced by human farms is, also, a matter of survival - not just the farmers, but for their community as well. When a farmer and elephants confront each other over a farm’s produce, the elephants often won’t back down. Neither will the farmers. The elephants know their size is a big factor in their success in any confrontation. But the farmers have guns. The elephants lose almost every battle.
This was a tragic situation because both the farmers and elephants were only doing what they “had” to do. Then, Lucy King, a researcher for “Save the Elephants,” thought of a solution. What if you could build a fence? But what kind of fence could withstand an elephant assault? Well, the effectiveness of King’s fence didn’t depend on the strength of a wall. She knew something about elephants.
Elephants are afraid of bees. Elephants are really afraid of bees. This sounds like some kind of peculiar elephant behavior – a kind of animal version of psychological bias -- until you are introduced to the bees. These are African bees. In North America, we have African-ized bees. That only means they have some African bee ancestors. But even these hybrid bees are called “killer bees” for a reason. The African bee is really, really mean.
Why are African honeybees so mean? Their touchiness probably has to do with the fierce “honey-robbing” African animals from which these bees have to protect their hives and honey stores. African bees are, by the way, only a different “breed” of the same species of bee you see outside from time to time – if you live in Europe or North America. But, like different dog breeds, different bee breeds can make for some big differences in behavior.
African honey bees are slightly smaller than their European and North American counterparts, but the strength of their sting and venom is absolutely identical to the other members of its species. So, what makes African bee into killer bees. Only one thing. Their behavior. Like most honeybee breeds, these bees will leave you alone -- unless they suspect that you are after their honey. Then, they will sting first and ask questions later. They chase down a threat in large, densely packed swarms and sting and sting and sting . . . like no other bee of their species. A swarm of these bees will chase you, at high speed, for a third of mile before letting off the chase.
Elephants have learned, from generations in Africa, that there are some critters that are so mean (with stings that are so painful), it’s just not worth it to mess with them.
And, Lucy King, knew that the elephants knew. She found out that elephants stay away from acacia trees with African beehives. And, not only do elephants never forget, apparently, they gossip about what they remember. When an elephant hears that buzz, they take off in the opposite direction and tell their “herd-mates” to do the same. Word spreads fast.
In the end, this is a win/win result. An often fatal confrontation is avoided. The elephants don’t get the meal they wanted or needed, but the farmers aren’t forced to protect their own food supply by having to kill these large, and generally friendly, endangered creatures. Confrontations and crop destruction is down by about 85%.
The six foot-tall fence, also, allows farmers to harvest the bees’ honey. These hives are fully functional, sheltered beekeepers’ hives. But, I can hear someone asking an obvious question. If African bees are so dangerous and so touchy about their honey, how can anyone “harvest” honey from one of their hives and . . . er, ah . . . live to tell about it?
Actually, Africanized bees are excellent honey producers and have been widely domesticated by commercial beekeepers in Africa. Why are they the bee of choice in Africa, but the “killer bee” in America? Well, I think it has a lot to do with the people in Africa and North America. Africans grow up with African bees -- the only bee they’ve ever known. They are much more careful of bees than the residents of Northern Europe or the United States. Africans learn through example and experience how to avoid antagonizing their sensitive African bees.
On the other hand, in the southern United States where Africanized bees have become numerous over the last four decades, we tend to treat these bees the same way we’ve always treated our bees. Except . . . our bees were of a much, much more docile nature.
Many North American beekeepers argue that Africanized bees are good honey producers and require nothing more than a little different handling than their North American and Northern European cousins. Some are even concerned that, at a time when bee populations are declining, we are “disposing” of Africanized honeybee colonies – treating these as public hazards.
I can agree that African bees are probably not so very dangerous for those who have grown up in a location in which these bees have always been common. Raised in communities that have known no other bee than the African, even small children pick up proper safety behaviors, probably by example as much as by any formal instruction from parents.
But we, in North America, are not conditioned to the Africanized honeybee’s touchy behavior. Quite the opposite. Every year, deaths and severe injury result from provocations as simple as walking too close to a tree containing an Africanized hive. The fear is understandable because the danger, at least to North Americans and Northern Europeans, is quite real. Beekeepers are restricted in most locations and prohibited from maintaining Africanized bee colonies because of the danger to nearby residents.
But our honeybee security forces are not restricted to rural Africa and can be found in at least one of America’s largest cities. Next week, in “Part II,” security guard bees in the Big Apple.
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