Bees and Elephants in Tanzania

6:30 PM, Friday, September 13th, 2024
$10 Per Person
Dessert will be provided

Populations of African elephants in Tanzania had dropped to half of their previous numbers in recent years but are now starting to rebound. This lecture outlines the issues behind mitigating conflicts and proposes steps to improve elephant populations in the immediate and long-term future, using bees.

Dr. Josephine (Jody) Johnson has a PhD in toxicology and has spent her research career on bees at the US Department of Agriculture on parasites, pesticide effects, nutritional studies, and electrostatic interactions between bees and flowers. In the last five years, she has been and continues to be engaged in a project in Tanzania in which honey bee hives are installed to deter migrating African elephants from raiding village croplands, thereby avoiding deadly human-elephant conflicts. Recently retired from teaching college classes in environmental science, chemistry, physical science, world pollinators, and sustainability, she has spoken at conferences nationally and internationally, and currently maintains a personal apiary of 21 hives.