Elephants do not like pepper chile

2002/07/17 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Zoologia
• Ingurumena

In several African countries the elephant is a protected species that lives free together with man. But many times the roads cross and problems arise. It is very common for elephants to enter man-grown land and spoil everything.

Obviously, losses can be huge. In Botswana (South Africa), for example, farmers with elephant-damaged land are subsidized. But the problem has grown so much that in this country one million dollars are spent annually in grants.

Many methods have been tried to keep elephants away from the grounds: hanging devices that make noise, making holes, surrounding them with fencing with thorns, building walls... But no one has fully solved the problem.

Now they have presented a new method that, without causing great damage to elephants, will keep them away from the grounds: chili pepper. It seems that elephants do not like at all chili pepper powder and bitter smoke generated by burning this dust, and have seen that they do not even approach the places where the dust or the plant itself is located.

Therefore, they believe that in the end they have found the right method, both farmers and experts, since for some it is cheap and effective and for others it is possible to move away from the elephant without harming.