Using Buzzing Bees to Protect Trees

Have you heard of the drink called Amarula? This cream liqueur is made from the fruit of Marula trees. These iconic trees are not only picturesque as they stud the African plains with their shady presence but they also represent important food sources in more ways than one to both humans and elephants. Consequently, we now sit with potential Human-Elephant-Conflict over an iconic tree! People don’t want to see these trees disappearing from the landscape because of elephant’s large appetites and feeding preference for them. Reserve Managers would like to preserve some trees to ensure seed stock and in keeping with the biodiversity objectives of the Greater Kruger Region. Elephants, on the other hand, can feed on numerous other species and can be taught to avoid so-called botanical reserves created in areas with many marula trees. But how?


In Kenya, Dr. Lucy King has provided evidence that elephants are afraid of honey bees and their stings. Lucy constructed fence-lines with beehives around crop fields and found that crop-raiding elephants avoided these fields and also ran away when the recorded sounds of swarming honey bees were played back. As an MSc graduate student at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, I would like to research and find a solution to protect iconic trees from elephant impact using bees to keep elephants alive!  I will be conducting this important research for the NPO Elephants Alive.

We will be requiring 100 beehives for an experimental site of 50 marula trees in the Greater Kruger region. Each tree will have two wire-connected beehives hung from it preventing the elephants from feeding on the trees without disturbing the beehives. Each beehive will cost us $50, resulting in a total amount of $5000 required for beehives.
 

We would love to keep everyone up to date with the development of this project through messages, pictures and videos from our site, and would really like to call on your support to help us purchase these beehives. Please share this campaign on your social networking pages and help us make this conservation project a reality in South Africa.

If you wish to donate using our banking details, please see below: 

Bank details: Save the Elephants – South Africa (STE-SA)
Account number: 331632284
Standard Bank branch code: 052752 Hoedspruit South Africa
International Banking Account Number: SBZAZAJJ
Reference: Surname_Bees


Gor more info, please vclick on the link below:

http://bags4good.org.za/wild-about-elephants