Farmyard guards

For Kenyan farmers struggling to protect their crops, scientists are offering a near-perfect solution: bees. With elephant populations rising in Kenya over the past 20 years, farmers have increasingly found their crops decimated as the hungry animals break through barriers to feast on tomatoes, potatoes, and maize. In 2009, a team of University of Oxford researchers investigated whether a boundary dotted with beehives could prevent elephants, which are naturally afraid of the insects, from crossing over. In the test, only one bull elephant in 32 attempted raids penetrated the beeline. The scientists, who only recently published their findings in the African Journal of Ecology, claim that beehives suspended from a wire fence every 100 yards or so should not only be sufficient to prevent almost all elephant raids, but would also provide African farmers with additional income when they sell the honey.