Elephants,
bees and the marriage tree...
Legend, tradition and folklore abound in
Africa and are often viewed with some skepticism in this, the post-modern era.
Yet it would seem that much received wisdom still has the potential to reveal
startling information about the natural world in which we live; elephants, bees
and the marriage tree being no exception…
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Photo and text by Lorraine Doyle
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Legend has it that Hare acted kindly towards
Elephant during a year of drought by helping him to find water, and was
rewarded with a tusk. This he planted in his garden where it grew into a
beautiful fruit-bearing tree which he named Marula. So precious however was the
tusk to Elephant that to this day he seeks it out under the Marula tree,
devouring vast quantities of the fruit every season to sustain him in his quest.
Known
scientifically as Sclerocarrya birrea
the Marula tree is of great importance not only to elephants but also to
humans. A profusion of flowers bloom in
the early summer at which time the background hum of bees is ever present.
Then, from February to April fruits the size of large apricots, are borne on
the female trees. During these three months, in keeping with the legend, elephants
(Loxodonta africana) are never far
away from this bountiful food source often shaking the trees to make them give
up their valuable prize. Containing 54mg/100g of vitamin C - two to four times
that of citrus - bull elephants in musth (a periodic cycle in which
their impulse to mate goes into overdrive and they become very aggressive) consume
particularly large quantities of the fruit in order to boost their immune
systems during their pursuit of females.
Archaeological
evidence suggests that humans have utilized the Marula tree for some 12,000
years as a source of food and alcoholic beverages but also for medicinal and
ritual purposes. Since the trees are dioecious (male and female flowers are
borne on separate trees) and must grow in close proximity in order to produce
fruit they hold great significance in matters of the heart. In many traditional
cultures it is believed that marriages held under the Marula tree are divinely
blessed whilst marital conflict resolution can be accomplished by tying husband
and wife each to the relevant gender tree and leaving them there until they
make friends…
The African honey
bee (Apis mellifera) is the hereto
missing link between elephants and the marriage tree. As the primary pollinator
of Sclerocarrya birrea it ensures
that Elephant is provided with sustenance for both the search for his tusk and
females. However as with many legends there is a sting in the tail… Elephants
are terrified of bees! Evidence of this entered the scientific community in
2002 when Fritz Vollrath and Iain Douglas-Hamilton were discussing possible
methods of preventing further elephant damage to Fever trees (Acacia xanthaphloea) growing along the
Ewaso Nyiru River in the Laikipia area of Kenya. Interviews conducted then, and
later by Lucy King from Oxford University for her doctoral thesis, revealed
that scenes of elephants being chased up to five kilometers by angry bees had
been documented by local people for decades and had been part of Masai legend
for generations. King’s research demonstrated that elephants utter a
distinctive rumble in response to the sound of bees after which they run away
shaking their heads. Her study provided the first evidence of an alarm call in
the species. Tapping into elephants’ well-documented intelligence and memory
King et al went on to devise a simple strategy of deterring elephants from
damaging trees and local farmers’ crops. This they achieved by hanging beehives from
wooden posts at 10-metre intervals with a long metal wire linking them all
together. When an elephant hits the wire, it shakes the hives and sends angry
honeybees swarming into a defensive frenzy. Elephants associate the noise with
previous severe pain in their trunks and depart without further ado!
So, not only has legend and the observations of our
ancestors stood the test of scientific scrutiny but the use of marula fruits to
make alcohol has passed unbidden into the 21st Century; now where
did I leave my glass of Amarula…?
As featured
in the October 2017 edition of my monthly column (The Wild Guide) in SA 4x4 magazine
