By Lynn Von Hagen, 9th September 2024
African savannah elephants—the largest terrestrial animals alive today—once roamed across vast swaths of the continent, but their habitats have shrunk dramatically over the past decades. As human populations expand and our activities take up more space, these large mammals are forced into smaller areas, and people and elephants often end up sharing spaces, resulting in more frequent interactions. While some human–elephant interactions are positive—for example wildlife tourism, which is a major part of the economy in many African countries and helps provide funding for elephant conservation—some interactions can have devastating impacts on the people and animals involved.
African elephants weigh several tonnes and require huge amounts of food and water to sustain their bodies; a single individual consumes around 150 kg of vegetation per day. Many elephants living in close proximity to humans supplement their diets with agricultural crops, which are often nutritionally dense and easy to access, especially if farmers live on the periphery of protected areas. As elephants not only consume vast amounts of food but also trample crops during their incursions into fields, this creates conflicts with local people, especially subsistence farmers whose livelihoods rely heavily on their harvests. Elephant crop foraging—often termed crop raiding—can leave farmers feeling helpless, frustrated and threatened, and some may respond by attempting to retaliate against these giant herbivores. In addition to accidental encounters during daily life, these negative interactions can result in serious injuries and even deaths of both people and elephants.
A large male African elephant captured by an infrared camera prepares to enter a farmer’s fields in rural Kenya. Photo credit: Lynn Von Hagen.
To improve food security for struggling farmers who are losing their crops to elephants, while also protecting populations of the threatened pachyderms, conservationists are constantly searching for innovative and practical solutions. This includes trialling and implementing various deterrent methods, ranging from simple, traditional methods like burning fires, making loud noises or patrolling, to more complex measures such as constructing electric, chili, beehive or metal fences. For example, the Kasaine metal strip fence, invented by our Kenyan colleague, Mr. Simon Kasaine, involves hanging strips of lightweight galvanized steel on wires attached to fence posts. It uses locally available materials and acts as a giant audible deterrent; when the fence is contacted or the wind blows, it creates a loud, jangling metallic sound that can startle elephants and also alert farmers to elephant presence. Elephants don’t like surprises, especially when they are foraging for crops in the dark of night! (Read more about our work testing the Kasaine fence here.)
A Kasaine double metal strip fence, a locally invented deterrent method which can prevent elephant crop foraging due to the loud clanging noise made when the metal strips are blown about in the wind. This simple fence is practical, low maintenance and relatively inexpensive. As with all deterrents local success is a factor; the Sasenyi area of the Kasigau Wildlife Corridor is particularly windy, making it a great place for this specific deterrent. Photo: Lynn Von Hagen.
With all of this in mind, from 2016 to 2022 we set about finding out how farmers in the Kasigau Wildlife Corridor of south-eastern Kenya, part of the Greater Tsavo Ecosystem, cope with living in close proximity to elephants that have acquired a taste for their crops, as well as looking into the drivers and consequences of human–elephant interactions in the area. Our team from Wildlife Works, Auburn University and Western Kentucky University, with support from the International Elephant Foundation and Earthwatch, carried out several experiments and participatory processes with local farmers to help inform best practices for human–elephant coexistence. One of the tools we used were surveys that asked about farmers’ socio-economic circumstances, use of elephant deterrent methods, and experiences with elephants. Another method was using modelling to determine whether there were social or demographic factors that influenced which farmers use crop foraging deterrents, such as age, gender, education level, years spent farming, exposure to information about deterrent methods, farm size and village location.
Local farmers who volunteered to participate in surveys regarding their usage of elephant deterrent methods. Photo taken with permission, by Lynn Von Hagen.
We found that just over half of the participants used some type of crop foraging deterrent, although this was highly variable and modelling showed there was no such thing as a ‘typical’ deterrent user. One finding that stood out, however, was the fact that education and access to information matter: farmers who had previously been exposed to information about various deterrent methods were four times more likely to use such methods in their homesteads, and those with higher levels of education were five times more likely to have received such information. We also found the cost of implementing deterrents is a barrier: lack of funds was the main reason why many farmers believed they would be unable to start using any deterrents to keep elephants away from their crops. From the farmers’ responses it was also evident that the problems caused by crop-foraging elephants go beyond economic impacts. The majority of respondents (nearly 80%) were living in fear of elephants, potentially affecting their emotional well-being and physical health. Particularly striking was the fact that few (only 16%) of the farmers had ever received information on how to safely live near and interact with elephants. Our findings highlight the challenges of living in landscapes shared with wildlife, and the multiple barriers preventing the uptake of deterrent methods that could facilitate coexistence.
Two African savannah elephants in the Kasigau Wildlife Corridor, Kenya. Photo: Lynn Von Hagen.
So, how can we use these insights to inform conservation action? It is clear that farmers are more likely to attempt to use some form of elephant deterrent if they have been exposed to the relevant information. Quite simply, you can’t implement something if you don’t know it exists! Information about effective deterrent methods is currently not reaching some of the farmers and communities who need it the most, emphasizing the need for increased outreach efforts to provide up-to-date information, including on modern deterrent methods such as deploying solar lights, planting unpalatable chili peppers or installing beehive or metal strip fences.
We are not completely sure why it was the farmers with higher education levels who had received information on deterrents. Perhaps higher levels of education tend to result in higher income, providing the opportunity to afford deterrents and increasing the likelihood that farmers will actively seek out resolutions to crop foraging. Most farmers, however, cannot afford the materials to construct and maintain more modern, effective deterrent fencing, which means assistance programmes such as micro-loans or the creation of low-cost methods could be necessary. Local community leaders are welcoming and encouraging of new ideas that can provide practical, sustainable solutions tailored to the local context.
Not only do elephants consume crops, they can also trample them, as well as damaging fencing or water storage devices. Photo: Lynn Von Hagen.
It is also important to address the fact that so many farmers in the area are living in fear of elephants, afraid for their own and their family’s lives on a daily basis. Such high levels of fear may be linked to the fact that most farmers had never received information on how to safely live near elephants; such information is urgently needed to ensure community members feel more secure and understand how to interact with elephants when they are nearby.
Overall, we found that many rural farmers in the Kasigau Wildlife Corridor are not receiving the vital information they need to help them coexist with elephants. Without additional educational and financial resources, elephant crop foraging is likely to persist. We, and others, continue to build on our knowledge of human–elephant interactions, both positive and negative, and the impact of these interactions on livelihoods and conservation, and how we can use that knowledge to contribute towards coexistence.
An African elephant takes a drink from a water tank with Mount Kasigau in the background. Photo: Lynn Von Hagen.
The article ‘Lack of crucial information exacerbates barriers to mitigating human–elephant conflicts in rural Kenya‘ is available open access in Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation.
