Impact of drought and development on the effectiveness of beehive fences as elephant deterrents over 9 years in Kenya

Human–elephant conflict is growing in Africa as human populations and development increases, creating disturbance to elephant habitats. Beehive fences have been trialed as a coexistence tool with some success but all studies have looked at small sample sizes over a short time period. Our study analyses the behavior of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) that approached a network of beehive fence protected farms in two conflict villages over 9 years next to Tsavo East National Park. We compare differences in elephant raids and beehive occupation rates annually, during a drought, and during peak crop production seasons. Out of 3999 elephants approaching our study farms 1007 elephants broke the beehive fence and entered the protected farm areas (25.18%). This was significantly less than the 2649 encounters where elephants remained either outside the farm boundary or broke into the control farms (66.24%). A further 343 elephants entered the farm by walking through a gap at the end of a fence (8.56%). The annual beehive fence break-through rates averaged 23.96% (±SE 3.15) resulting in a mean of 76.04% elephants deterred from beehive fences protected farm plots. Over six peak crop growing seasons the beehive fences kept between 78.3% and 86.3% of elephants out of the farms and crops. The beehive fences produced one ton of honey sold for $2250; however, a drought caused a 75% reduction in hive occupation rates and honey production for 3 years after negatively impacting honey profits and the effectiveness of the fences. Beehive fences are very effective at reducing up to 86.3% of elephant crop-raids during peak crop seasons after good rainfall, but any increase in elephant habitat disturbance or the frequency and duration of droughts could reduce their effectiveness as a successful coexistence tool.