大象怕老鼠可能只是一个笑谈，然而非洲象却真的对另一种小生物——蜜蜂——怀有极大的恐惧。对于这些敌人，它们甚至有专门的警报信号。日前，科学家利用这种恐惧帮助肯尼亚农民保护自己的庄稼。
在之前的研究中，由英国牛津大学的动物学家Lucy King领导的一个研究小组发现，当听到蜜蜂发出嗡嗡声后，这些庞然大物会迅速逃离所在的区域。
除了人类和狮子，非洲大象在它们的热带大草原老家似乎没有什么可害怕的。但是出于某种原因，这些庞然大物却对非洲蜜蜂充满了恐惧。一个狂暴的蜂群能够蜇刺大象的眼睛和象鼻的内部，并刺破幼象的皮肤。
尽管非洲象的大部分表皮都很厚，但它们身上也有一些脆弱的地方——腹部、耳后、眼睛周围以及象鼻内部的皮肤较薄，往往经不起昆虫的叮咬。
随着非洲象栖息地日益减少，这些庞然大物正在越来越多地袭击农民的庄稼。
如今，为了解决这个问题，还是这些科学家，他们设计并测试了一种围栏，这种围栏每间隔10米便会设置一个蜂房。
研究小组沿着位于肯尼亚北部的17座农场的边界安装了1700米的围栏——这些地区经常遭到野生大象的袭击；而相同农场的另外1700米的边界则仅仅用荆棘树当做围栏。
两年之后，用蜂箱做成的围栏轻松地赢得了这场比赛，只有一头公象冲破了这道围栏，而另外有31头大象设法捣毁了由荆棘树构成的围栏。
科学家在最新一期的《非洲生态学期刊》（African Journal of Ecology）上报告了这一研究成果。
研究人员指出，蜂房围栏因此还能够用来帮助限制人类与大象的冲突数量，随着非洲人口的不断增加，以及农民与大象对土地和水源进行的争夺，这一问题正变得愈发明显。(生物谷 Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐原文出处：
African Journal of Ecology DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2028.2011.01275.x
Beehive fences as effective deterrents for crop‐\raiding elephants: field trials in northern Kenya
King, Lucy E.; Douglas‐Hamilton, Iain; Vollrath, Fritz
Increasing elephant populations in Kenya since 1989 have been widely praised as a conservation success story. However, where elephants and agricultural land overlap, incidents of human–elephant conflict are on the increase. Wildlife managers and farmers are now trying different farm-based deterrents to keep elephants out of crops. Here, we present data on the effectiveness of a novel beehive fence deployed in a Turkana community of 62 communally run farms in Kenya. Specifically, 1700 m of beehive fences semi-surrounded the outer boundaries of seventeen farms, and we compared elephant farm invasion events with these and to seventeen neighbouring farms whose boundaries were ‘protected’ only by thorn bush barriers. We present data from 45 farm invasions, or attempted invasions, recorded over 2 years. Thirteen groups of elephants approached the beehive fences and turned away. Of the 32 successful farm invasions, only one bull elephant broke through the beehive fences. These results demonstrate that beehive fences are more effective than thorn bush barriers at deterring elephants and may have a role to play in alleviating farmer–elephant conflict. Additionally, the harvesting of 106 kg of honey during the trial period suggests that beehive fences may also improve crop production and enhance rural livelihoods through honey sales.
