Elephants, Trees & Bees: What’s the Connection?

The African elephant is one of Africa's best-known and loved animals. Yet for conservationists concerned with the health of entire ecosystems, the impact of elephants can pose challenges. Specifically, growing elephant numbers in South Africa are creating problems for marula trees, affecting biodiversity overall. Elephants love to eat marula fruit and bark, and overzealous consumption is damaging and destroying these tall icons of the bushveld. Yet an innovative solution is being studied: beyond relying on wire-net protection around the base of tree trunks, researchers are employing African honeybees as a means to keep elephants away, since elephants actively avoid the bees. The fruit-bearing marula tree is an important dietary staple for people, and hanging beehives in its branches may be a way to protect its important role as a subsistence crop and in ecosystem health more broadly. Lorraine Doyle is closely involved with the situation as the wildlife manager of a South African reserve where these issues are front and center. The predicament demonstrates how complex ecological interrelationships can be, requiring creative solutions to multifaceted challenges, including human-wildlife conflict mitigation.


Originally presented December 13, 2021

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