Beloved by tourists—who contribute around 10 percent of Kenya's GDP—the elephants are loathed by most local farmers, who form the backbone of the nation's economy.
Elephant conservation has been a roaring success: numbers in Tsavo rose from around 6,000 in the mid-1990s to almost 15,000 elephants in 2021, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).
But the human population also expanded, encroaching on grazing and migration routes for the herds.
Resulting clashes are becoming the number one cause of elephant deaths, says KWS.
Refused compensation when she lost her crops, Mwangome admits she was mad with the conservationists.
But a long-running project by charity Save the Elephants offered her an unlikely solution—deterring some of nature's biggest animals with some of its smallest: African honeybees.
Cheery yellow beehive fences now protect several local plots, including Mwangome's.
A nine-year study published last month found that elephants avoided farms with the ferocious bees 86 percent of the time.
"The beehive fences came to our rescue," said Mwangome.
Hacking nature
The deep humming of 70,000 bees is enough to make many flee, including a six-tonne elephant, but Loise Kawira calmly removes a tray in her apiary to demonstrate the intricate combs of wax and honey.
Kawira, who joined Save the Elephants in 2021 as their consultant beekeeper, trains and monitors farmers in the delicate art.
The project supports 49 farmers, whose plots are surrounded by 15 connected hives.
Each is strung on greased wire a few meters off the ground, which protects them from badgers and insects, but also means they shake when disturbed by a hungry elephant.
Share:
UK may approve bee-killing pesticide despite election promise to ban it.
Concerned about pesticides in your food? You should be!