Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Bees: Is There Anything They Can't Do?

Got an elephant problem?

An experiment conducted in Kenya by Lucy King of the University of Oxford has shown that elephants are afraid of bees. So afraid, in fact, that they make a specific sound to warn other elephants that there are bees nearby. By playing a recording of the sounds of bees, or even of the sound that elephants make that means "bees," a herd of elephants will take off running.

This could be a useful tool for farmers in Africa whose crops are subject to raids by elephants. Installing beehives around human settlements has been proven to work to keep elephants away.
For now.

Click the link for the article in New Scientist:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18821-elephantspeak-for-beware-of-the-bees.html

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