Language:

How Bees Deter Elephants: Beehive Trials with Forest Elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis) in Gabon

PloS one, 2016-05, Vol.11 (5), p.e0155690-e0155690 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

COPYRIGHT 2016 Public Library of Science ;This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License. ;ISSN: 1932-6203 ;EISSN: 1932-6203 ;DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155690 ;PMID: 27196059

Full text available

Citations Cited by

Actions
1. Add to My Research
2. Remove from My Research
3. E-mail
4. Print
5. Permalink
6. Citation
7. EasyBib
8. EndNote
9. RefWorks
10. Delicious
11. Export RIS
12. Export BibTeX

Title:
How Bees Deter Elephants: Beehive Trials with Forest Elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis) in Gabon
Author: Ngama, Steeve ; Korte, Lisa ; Bindelle, Jérôme ; Vermeulen, Cédric ; Poulsen, John R
Wicker-Thomas, Claude
Subjects: Agricultural economics ; Agriculture ; Agriculture & agronomie ; Agriculture & agronomy ; Animals ; Apis mellifera adansonii ; Bee ; Beehive ; Beehives ; Bees ; Bees - physiology ; Behavior ; Biology and Life Sciences ; Colonies ; Conservation ; Conservation of Natural Resources ; Crop damage ; Crops ; Crops, Agricultural ; Deterrents ; Ecology and Environmental Sciences ; Elephant ; Elephants ; Elephants - physiology ; Environmental aspects ; Environmental sciences & ecology ; Farms ; Forests ; Fruit trees ; Gabon ; Honey ; Housing ; Human-wildlife conflict ; Life sciences ; Linear Models ; Loxodonta africana cyclotis ; Loxodonta cyclotis ; Medicine and Health Sciences ; Nutrition ; People and Places ; Poaching ; Poverty ; Rain ; Sciences de l’environnement & écologie ; Sciences du vivant ; Temperature ; Towns ; United States ; Wildlife ; Wildlife conservation ; Wildlife management
Is Part Of: PloS one, 2016-05, Vol.11 (5), p.e0155690-e0155690
Description: In Gabon, like elsewhere in Africa, crops are often sources of conflict between humans and wildlife. Wildlife damage to crops can drastically reduce income, amplifying poverty and creating a negative perception of wild animal conservation among rural people. In this context, crop-raiding animals like elephants quickly become "problem animals". To deter elephants from raiding crops beehives have been successfully employed in East Africa; however, this method has not yet been tested in Central Africa. We experimentally examined whether the presence of Apis mellifera adansonii, the African honey bee species present in Central Africa, deters forest elephants (Loxodonta Africana cyclotis) from feeding on fruit trees. We show for the first time that the effectiveness of beehives as deterrents of elephants is related to bee activity. Empty hives and those housing colonies of low bee activity do not deter elephants all the time; but beehives with high bee activity do. Although elephant disturbance of hives does not impede honey production, there is a tradeoff between deterrence and the quantity of honey produced. To best achieve the dual goals of deterring elephants and producing honey colonies must maintain an optimum activity level of 40 to 60 bee movements per minute. Thus, beehives colonized by Apis mellifera adansonii bees can be effective elephant deterrents, but people must actively manage hives to maintain bee colonies at the optimum activity level.
Publisher: United States: Public Library of Science
Language: English
Identifier: ISSN: 1932-6203
EISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155690
PMID: 27196059
Source: GFMER Free Medical Journals
MEDLINE
PubMed Central
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
ProQuest Central
DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals

Back to results list


INSPIRE LIBRARY - TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY	(84-028) 37 755 057	Feedback
19 Nguyen Huu Tho St. Dist.7, HCM	thuvien@tdtu.edu.vn	Feedback

How Bees Deter Elephants: Beehive Trials with Forest Elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis) in Gabon

Searching Remote Databases, Please Wait