When the rivalry between honeybees and humans impede space research
Photo: Lauwrian Andreas
Meerkat National Park is SANParks’ new kid on the block. Not only is the landscape extremely stark and beautiful, but its remoteness resulted in the Square Kilometre Array’s (SKA) scientific consortium decision to initiate an elite radio telescope project. This project consists of erecting 64 small antennas, collectively making up the MeerKAT telescope.
All this beauty – both natural and manmade – do not only attract man and his interests, but the African honeybee (Apis mellifera scutellata) too, can not escape the beguilement of Meerkat, and more importantly, the antennas. We are not sure if their intentions were merely to use the antennas as a motel, or if they were actually using the antennas to send messages into the far-flung regions of the universe…. I guess we may never know.
The popularity of Meerkat and the MeerKAT telescope with honeybees result in conflict with humans. Visitors have been complaining that honeybees crop up everywhere and scientists complain that honeybees make it hard to access the antennas. Humans feel that honeybees’ actions are unjustified when they unleash their secret weapon upon the slightest provocation.
In response to these concerns, SANParks developed recommendations for honeybee challenges and coexistence with humans at SKA and Meerkat National Park (Internal Report 03 /2022). These include appointing a service provider for training on safety measures when around honeybees. If bees need to be removed, this should be done using an appropriate bee box by a qualified bee remover to a place far from the infrastructure but still within the park. We hope that these recommendations will help both parties to coexist and harmoniously visit Meerkat and MeerKAT.
This article was originally published in the 2022/2023 Research Report.
