Comments on: Guardian Bees Protect Kenyan Crops from Roaming Elephants

By: Sandra

Sandra — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:03:42 +0000

“The honey money allows them to purchase new clothes and additional food”

That closing line is almost despicably trite and cliche…unless he was talking about new clothes for the bees.

By: Templar 7

Templar 7 — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:07:29 +0000

Welcome to the wonderful world of Science, Nathan!!! Get used to alot of this kind of behaviors all of the time, because in this field, everybody thinks they are hot shit. It is the worst part of the job.

By: Mos

Mos — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 06:08:57 +0000

Wahhhh…. would you like some cheese with that wine?

By: Nathan Emery

Nathan Emery — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:04:15 +0000

I think it is sad that Lucy King takes credit for this when I and my colleagues (none of which are PHD’s ) carried out this project in 2006 around Mole National Park in Northern Ghana. The difference is that, one we did it first, secondly we tried to get interest in our results but both WWF and the IUCN HEC committee had no time for us as they were, at the time, concentrating on chili peppers and would not entertain “Regular Jo’s”. I guess because we didn’t go to schools like Oxford we are not worth knowing nor is our work. At any rate, Elephants have still not managed to get into the crops of those farmers we worked with and I believe the project has expanded because we taught people how to make their own hives and equipment.

By: Jockaira

Jockaira — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 16:15:01 +0000

If the elephants do not develop techniques to deal with the bee-hive barriers, then the natural tendencies of the farmers will be to use the hives everywhere, and of course, to extend their territories thus leaving the elephants even less land (perhaps none) on which to forage.

Elephants are and can be an important of an African Nation’s economy, just as are farmers, so they should be accommodated within that economy.

The only long-term solution that addresses both issues is the demarcation of wild zones appropriate to elephant needs from which all ordinary human activity would be excluded except for necessary rangers and supervised tours. Such zones, because of their size, would likely also be appropriate for most other animal and plant species.

This would be a win-win situation for all concerned, but the threat of burgeoning human populations is likely to make it impossible.

By: Ann

Ann — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:36:28 +0000

Great solution to the farmers’ problem. It still doesn’t address that humans are taking away elephant habitat. That’s why the elephants are going for farm crops in the first place.

By: shibby

shibby — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:51:41 +0000

zOMG thats crazy

By: lou

lou — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:39:25 +0000

while @ the same time, the bees help to pollinate the crops, which down the road couild potentially lead to bigger crop yields. Win/Win situation.