Farmers in South Africa deter elephants with cans and fire — Mongabay

At the Den Staat farm in South Africa’s Limpopo province, small-scale farmers deter elephants from fields by banging metal cans, using fire and empty plastic containers. The animals enter the plots at night and destroy crops, which are the main source of income for local residents, Mongabay reports.

Low-cost means of protection

Farmer Jowmen Moyo, who cultivates a 5-hectare plot, spoke about a nighttime visit by an elephant to a tomato field. According to him, the animal moved away when he lit a fire, but returned after the flames died out. He also burned a tire, but this method held the elephant back only briefly.

Other residents of the farm bang on small cans, hang white plastic containers on wires, or use toy guns that produce a loud sound. When the containers move in the wind, farmers say this sometimes scares the animals away. Elephants can become accustomed to repeated sounds, so people alternate different methods.

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Fields on the elephants’ route

More than 160 people live on the farm, which was returned to the Machete community in 2010 after forced relocations during apartheid. Den Staat is located next to Mapungubwe National Park and is part of the Greater Mapungubwe landscape — a corridor through which elephants move between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Farmers also lose crops to baboons, warthogs, zebras and wildebeest, but they call elephants the most destructive animals for the fields.

According to one farmer’s estimate, in 2024 he harvested eight truckloads of crops instead of the expected 10 due to elephant damage to tomatoes. A 2018 study by the University of Venda estimated annual losses for irrigated farms in the Greater Mapungubwe area from elephant incursions at 30,000–50,000 rand in less severe cases and more than 100,000 rand in cases of significant damage.

South African National Parks representative Ray Thakuli noted that it is difficult for rangers to drive elephants away because they enter from different areas of Botswana. According to him, a commercial farmer was able to fence off part of the crops, while the community’s vegetable growers cannot afford it: a fence for a plot of about 12 acres costs approximately 100,000 rand, according to local estimates.