Elephants and Humans Fight for Water: Scientists Have Found a Way to Stop It!

I constantly emphasize that there are always ways to solve environmental issues without harming people or wildlife. The problem is simply that governments refuse to acknowledge this! And it’s all done deliberately. Traditional methods of extracting immediate profits are still working, so why would they stop the money flow right now?

I repeat: any environmental problem can be solved! Even the most global and seemingly "unsolvable" issues.

Right now, African countries have started massively killing wild animals in reserves. It's already known that Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana have declared an "urgent need" to clear nature of the last animals to process them into meat to feed local populations.

The international community did not even condemn them. The UN merely shook its head: "Oh well, they're hungry."

And later it turned out, after the animal slaughter had already started, that these countries are simply selling hunting licenses in reserves to European and American hunters! They have announced "trophy hunting" for animals, for which "white sahibs" are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars. In unprotected lands, almost no wild animals remain; the last refuges are national parks and protected areas. For a long time, governments didn’t know how to provide trophy hunting, but they badly wanted the money! So, they came up with this plan: under the guise of humanitarian issues, they simply legalized hunting in reserves.

But there are real problems that the governments of African countries indeed relied on. For example, the fierce competition between elephants and humans for water. There are almost no sources of clean water; water tables are sinking, rivers are drying up. It all stems from the destruction of forest ecosystems by humans, resulting in disrupted biotic climate regulation! Forests were cut down for pastures, agriculture, and cities, and timber was exported for decades at low prices to China and Europe.

Now there’s no water, frequent climate anomalies, heatwaves, and droughts. And animals are also struggling to survive! While some animals can be driven away from water sources, with elephants, it’s much harder: they are huge, move in herds, and are ready to fight for water.

This is precisely what African countries relied on, arguing for the urgent need to kill elephants! They claim, "Animals are arrogant, stealing our last water, trampling crops."

All we hear are calls for killing. Authorities don’t even attempt to suggest other solutions. This is not because "they don’t know what to do," but because they are making huge money from the trophy hunting industry and are not ready to give up this profit.

You may ask me: then how to solve the problem? There's agriculture, hunger, people need something to eat. Yet, any agriculture consumes almost all the water, and in extreme heat and drought, even more water is needed.

Elephants come, drink all the water, trample the crops. What to do?

Naturally, the first task is to separate agriculture and wildlife, to prevent zoonotic exchanges (possible diseases) and ensure food security.

Our nature is a very wise architect, and many solutions are quite obvious, but no one wants to see them.

Did you know there is a massive bee extinction happening worldwide? Up to 85% of all pollination in our agriculture depends on them. If there are fewer bees, people start using more pesticides on fields, which further reduces bee populations. A vicious cycle of ecocide.

So, on October 29, 2024, a new scientific study was published titled "The Impact of Drought and Development on the Effectiveness of Beehive Fences as Deterrents for Elephants Over Nine Years in Kenya."

Scientists conducted a nine-year study to prove that installing beehives on farms reduces elephant encounters by 86%. Just think about it: only 14% of conflicts remain between elephants and humans. The rest is solved by simply setting up beehives, which also help pollinate and support the health of agriculture!

The research was conducted by the Save the Elephants (STE) organization in collaboration with Oxford University (UK) and the Wildlife Research and Training Institute and the Kenya Wildlife Service.

So, both Kenyan government specialists and independent experts from the UK and conservationists participated in the work.

In Kenya, the population is growing rapidly. From 2000 to 2020 (in just 20 years), the population increased by 59.4%. This has led to a reduction in the habitats of elephants and other animal species! As a result, conflicts with elephants have increased under climate anomalies.

In 2007, scientists built special fences with beehives. The fence is impossible to miss: elephants sense it, hear (the bees’ sounds), and see it! This results in elephants avoiding local farms to avoid bee stings.

The research lasted nine years, involving 26 local farms. Around 400 instances of elephant approaches were analyzed: during harvest season, over 3,000 elephants approached farms looking for food. Thanks to the bees, conflicts with elephants were reduced by 86.3%. Over all seasons, including droughts, when elephants were prepared to "go to war" with people, about 76% were deterred.

Additionally, bees bring extra income through honey production! And, as mentioned earlier, they help pollinate crops.

Kenya is located near those African countries that decided to slaughter wild animals in reserves. And they cite the need for killing, claiming that elephants drink all the water and "devour crops."

So why can't these countries use proven real experience from long-term scientific research that prevents conflicts and saves wild animals?

The answer lies in purely "selfish" interests of the states. They are not interested in solutions but in the presence of problems, so they can justify such "extreme measures" under the guise of "humanitarian necessity" to legalize the killing of wild animals in reserves and continue profiting from large-scale trophy hunting.

Without problems, they would have no excuse for these "extreme measures." Thus, farmers must suffer so people themselves turn to the state, asking for permission to destroy animals.

Unfortunately, animal killings in reserves are already happening, and thousands of hunters are buying licenses for the last inhabitants of the wild at high prices.

© PAVEL PASHKOV