Diverting sex-crazed elephants with vibrations
Rampaging sex-crazed bull elephants could be controlled by faking the vibrations in the ground normally made by a fertile female.
When 'in musth' (a sate of sexual arousal) even normally calm male elephants will charge at anything which crosses their path, causing chaos for nearby villages and farms.
But now experts think they have come up with clever way of redirecting the testosterone filled over amorous giants.
Professor O'Connell-Rodwell, from Stanford University says that as elephants 'listen' with their feet it is possible to play a sound into the ground tricking them into thinking there is a possible mate nearby.
Just make sure he doesn't catch you, because the only thing worse than being confronted by a randy 6,000kg beast is being confronted by a randy 6,000kg beast who has just found out you were lying.
O'Connell-Rodwell s told the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference that she had great success in preventing randy elephants from approaching settlements using the technique.
"The bulls in must were very responsive. We have shown that we can set the elephants on a very specific trajectory,
"At the watering hole, we waited for them to arrive, and then used the calls to set them on one path, and then turn them back round again," she said.
"You see the male pressing his trunk against the ground. He's on a mission – he's looking for that female in oestrus,
"The response was intense and so directed. We were not expecting such intensity.
"We suggest this could be used as a tool by the park rangers – to help the elephants to stay out of trouble."
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