“Smelly” Elephant Repellent: Assessing the Efficacy of a Novel Olfactory Approach to Mitigating Elephant Crop Raiding in Uganda and Kenya

Human–elephant conflict is increasing across many parts of Asia and Africa. Mitigating elephant crop raiding has become a major focus of conservation intervention, however, many existing methods for tackling this problem are expensive and difficult to execute. Thus, there is a need for more affordab...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inDiversity (Basel) Vol. 14; no. 7; p. 509
Main Authors Tiller, Lydia N., Oniba, Ernest, Opira, Godfrey, Brennan, Ewan J., King, Lucy E., Ndombi, Victor, Wanjala, Derick, Robertson, Marion R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.07.2022
Subjects
Acoustics
African elephants
Corn
crop raiding
Crops
elephant repellent
Elephants
Farms
Feasibility studies
human-elephant conflict
Methods
National parks
olfactory mitigation
Organic liquids
Wildlife conservation
Kenya
Uganda
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Summary:Human–elephant conflict is increasing across many parts of Asia and Africa. Mitigating elephant crop raiding has become a major focus of conservation intervention, however, many existing methods for tackling this problem are expensive and difficult to execute. Thus, there is a need for more affordable, farm-based methods. Testing these methods is key to ensuring their effectiveness and feasibility. In this study, we tested a novel olfactory deterrent, the “smelly elephant repellent”, a foul-smelling organic liquid, on 40 farms in Uganda and Kenya. Our results show that the repellent was effective at deterring elephants from crop raiding. Over the study period, 82% of 309 elephant crop raids were deterred in Uganda. In Kenya, the repellent deterred 63% of 24 crop raiding incidents, and there was a significant effect of the repellent on test sites compared with control sites. The smelly repellent could be a helpful crop raiding mitigation tool for farmers, as this study showed it to be effective, relatively cheap, quick to produce from locally available ingredients, and communities have a positive attitude towards using it. Ongoing work is exploring the potential for a market-based approach to take this to scale in a financially sustainable way.
ISSN:1424-2818
1424-2818
DOI:10.3390/d14070509