Report by International intern, Lorna McCallister My first week and a half with the Elephants and Bees Project in Kenya was filled with working on a new elephant deterrent system built and funded by the Disney Conservation Fund. Dr. Lucy King and Dr. Joseph Soltis (Disney Conservation Fund) have studied elephant reactions to sounds of disturbed honey bees played by speakers without the presence of actual bees. They observed that…

Report by Sri Lankan intern, Zaineb Akbarally We are approaching the end of our current field season in Sri Lanka and what an exciting and successful three months it has been for the team! I joined the small team here on the ground in North Central, Sri Lanka on the outskirts of the Wasgamuwa National Park earlier this year in January to work on understanding and mitigating the intense human-elephant conflict…

Report by International intern, Rachel Abbott This lovely Thursday morning,  students from Kileva Eastfield Primary School joined Elephants & Bees team members for a community clean-up! The E&B team is keen to engage the students in caring for the environment. Every Wednesday we teach a one hour environmental and wildlife education lesson to Class 8 students, and we lead ongoing efforts to revitalize the school’s permaculture garden while enhancing their nutrition…

International intern, Rachel Abbott “Our task must be to widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures.” –Albert Einstein (painted on the wall of Kileva school) The Elephants and Bees (E&B) team is busy this month, partnering with our neighboring primary school, Kileva Eastfield, to enhance their permaculture, environmental and wildlife education efforts, and to encourage a sense of connection between the children and the nature that surrounds…

Report by interns, Maureen Kinyanjui and Rachel Abbott FIRST CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE TRAINING BY FAO KENYA  The Elephants and Bees Research Center located in Mwakoma village, is a project of Save the Elephants. The aim of the research is to help reduce human-elephant conflict through an innovative approach using bees as a natural deterrent to prevent elephants from raiding crops. The center is supporting local communities by encouraging implementation of good agricultural practices,…

Report from visiting Researcher, Paola Branco  Hello, I am Paola Branco, currently a researcher working on ideas to promote coexistence between elephants and local community at Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. I spent almost a month at the  Elephants and Bees Research center learning about beehive fences with Dr. Lucy King and the incredible team of project staff and international and Kenyan students. I had no previous knowledge on beekeeping,…

Report by visiting Entmologist, Laura Russo The primary purpose of this preliminary study was to determine whether the presence of the honeybee hive fence has a negative impact on the diversity and abundance of wild bees in Mwakoma farms. We compared 5 beehive fence farms with 5 nearby farms that did not have beehive fences. We conducted both bee bowl surveys along a 50m transect, and net collections of 30…

Report by Tsavo project officer, Esther Serem It has been a longtime dream of mine to view the landscapes and observe how the wildlife is distributed from the air. A few weeks ago, I received a letter of invitation from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and Save the Elephants (STE) to participate in the Tsavo-Mkomazi Total Aerial counts training – as you can imagine I was so excited knowing my…

Report by international intern, Tosca Tindall It was six months – almost to the day – from when I left Sagalla in June to when I returned on the first day of 2017, and the place is unrecognisable! When I left the April rains had turned the village into a rolling sea of African basil, morning glory and moringa; our hive occupancy was over 60% and the team was consumed…