You may have heard that elephants are afraid of mice, right? Well that isn't entirely true, however, elephants are absolutely terrified of something even smaller... Yes that is right, a 15,000 pound African Elephant is afraid of a little honey bee that weighs less than 1/10 of a gram!

Why is that?

Well before we dive in, let me talk about what prompted me to research this. It all started a couple days ago when I was doing some work on my parent's swimming pool. Yes, I am their pool boy from time to time ;) As I was cleaning the swimming pool, I noticed there are a few bees that always stop by to get a drink of water from time to time. After all, this is Arizona and there are only so many places a bee can go for a drink. 

Well, one thing I noticed is that my dog, "Husker" (yes he is named after the college football team) always runs away any time he hears the "buzz" of a bee. Which is kind of strange because when he sees them flying around he tries to 'bite them out of the air'. Yet, whenever he hears their buzzing sound he freaks out and takes off running in the other direction. 

So I did some reading about bees and animals being afraid of them...

Apparently the African Elephant is terrified of the honey bee. Mostly because bees in Africa are of the "killer bee" variety and tend to swarm very easily. The elephant has very thick skin all over its body except for one place, the trunk. Which leaves it vulnerable to bees. 

Think of how uncomfortable it is for you when a little bug goes up your nose, well imagine what it must feel like for an elephant if dozens of bees flew up his trunk and started stinging him... probably not the most pleasant feeling in the world. 

Scientists have shown that even playing a recording of buzzing bees is enough to make elephants run for the hills. 

What is even more interesting is that scientists have actually even detected a warning sound that elephants make to warn other elephants when they hear a buzzing sound. That is unusual because elephants don't really use warning sounds in any other instance... That confirms how deeply afraid these elephants are of bees. 

This is actually great news!

The positive from all of this is that scientists are able to use these recordings to alter an elephants behavior. When elephants are getting too close to areas where people are, they simply can play these recordings of buzzing bees and the elephants stay clear. It is safer, cheaper, and more effective than any kind of fencing could be. 

This is one instance where we can safely use nature to keep both us and the elephants safe from each other! :)

Live well my friends!

Sources:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/3309619/Elephants-are-scared-of-bees-scientists-say.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant

Image Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant

https://www.youtube.com

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