Elephants don't like it hot: Chillies keep elephants out of African farmers' fields.

[Vere Scott]

If there are no elephants presently raiding your crops, here's something to
try on other garden/farm pests: burn chilli peppers! I'm going to see if it
works on a gray squirrel that thinks my garden is his!  Nothing else
works.  Let me know what your experiences are.

Vere Scott.

http://www.nature.com/nsu/020715/020715-3.html

Title: Elephants don't like it hot

updated at midnight GMT search nature science update advanced search Society for Conservation Biology 16th Annual Meeting Canterbury, UK, July 2002 Elephants don't like it hot Chillies keep elephants out of African farmers' fields. 16 July 2002 JOHN WHITFIELD Farmers in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique are turning to chillies SPL Growing chilli peppers could keep elephants and crops apart, say researchers. Elephants avoid chilli plants, and burning the peppers keeps the animals away from other crops. Chillies are also a cash crop - one project is already selling 'elephant' chilli sauce. Crop raiding is a huge problem anywhere farmers and elephants come together. Entire fields can be destroyed overnight. Botswana, one of the few African countries to compensate farmers for elephant damage, pays out more than US$1 million each year. There are too many elephants for marksmen to kill or catch. Electric fences are expensive to install and maintain, and people steal the wire to make snares. Traditional methods, such as fires and drums, take up to an hour to work. "It's been an insoluble problem," says Loki Osborn, a conservation biologist on the Mid-Zambezi Elephant Project, based in Harare, Zimbabwe. He and colleague Guy Parker, of the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, are working with farmers and local government in northern Zimbabwe to design and implement low-tech elephant deterrents. Over the past two years, they have cut elephant damage by about three-quarters using noise makers, burning chillies and warning systems such as bells strung on fences. Elephants do not become inured to acrid chilli smoke, as they do to loud noises. "It's not just an empty threat - it causes the elephants real short-term pain," Parker told the Society for Conservation Biology's annual meeting in Canterbury, UK this week. Now farmers in Mozambique and Zambia have joined the spicy bandwagon. Switching from cotton - the previous elephant-prone cash crop - to chillies has brought economic benefits. I'm going home to try it Joel Musaasizi CARE Danmark Uganda But keeping elephants out has begun to expose weaknesses in local agriculture, says Osborn. "People still aren't really able to harvest anything," he explains because seed stock and cultivation practises are poor. So the Chilli Pepper Company - a commercial spin-off of the Mid-Zambezi Elephant Project - is also working to improve farming techniques and introduce better maize varieties into the villages in the scheme. Farmers in Uganda use thorn fences, trenches and stone walls to keep elephants out of their fields, says Joel Musaasizi, a conservationist with development organization CARE Danmark, based in Kabale, Uganda. "We're getting some success, but eventually the animals look for a weak spot," he says. Musaasizi intends to experiment with chillies. "I'm going home to try it," he says. "I sincerely hope it'll help our people." © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002 • Clay-clad corpses kill crop pests 20 May 2002 • Honey smells like teen elephant 28 February 2002 • Genes reveal jumbo schism 24 August 2001 • Underwater racket keeps eiders down 14 June 2001 • SCB 2002 • Elephant Pepper • Human-Elephant Conflict Working Group • Bacteria defies last-resort antibiotic 26 July 2002 • Puffer fish sequenced 26 July 2002 • Lasers could solve space data crisis 26 July 2002 • Knee clock takes knock 26 July 2002 • BaBar balances matter-antimatter books 25 July 2002 • Seeds blown away 25 July 2002 • Early bird ate seeds 25 July 2002