An innovative chili dispenser to establish memory fence dynamics at crop-wildlife interfaces for effective long term human-elephant conflict mitigation

Abstract

With elephant populations in southern Africa increasing at 5% per annum, local communities living in marginal land adjacent to protected areas are faced with increasing occurrences of human-elephant conflict. If this situation is not addressed, elephant populations will have to be reduced and condemned to survive in fenced protected areas while the negative attitudes of humans towards wildlife impact becomes engrained in the minds of many people. Recent mitigation strategies were developed aiming at enhancing existing traditional approaches and improving upon their effectiveness. An innovative chili pepper dispenser was developed to apply pepper directly at the offending elephant, teaching them to respect passive repellents. This concept mimics interactions between animal species to form an effective form of a virtual fence. The advanced chili applicator, developed in a hand held version, is the 'Mhiripiribomba' and the ambush version is the 'Ambushchillibomba'. They fire ping pong balls, filled with a concentrated chili liquid, at speeds of 250ft/sec that burst on contact on or near the elephant, atomizing the concentrate into a fine spray, and creating a deterrent. After hundreds of tests in southern Africa, the industrial version of the 'Mhiripiribomber' offers an opportunity to disseminate this tool at low cost. Combined with sustainable revenues from wildlife, the improvement of mitigation measures with this chili dispenser will increase the wildlife acceptance capacity that the human community is willing to tolerate. Through the creation of memory fences, it will facilitate elephants respecting human activities and aid the acceptance of wildlife corridor in crop land.