Elephant Repellant
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
An Arkansas elephant keeper is trying to
develop a repellant to keep the massive beasts away from crops.
Scott Riddle hopes a chemical repellant could be the answer to
eliminating often-deadly conflicts between wild elephants and
people in Asia and Africa.
Riddle -- one of America`s premier elephant keepers -- runs
Riddle`s Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary near Greenbrier. He`s
received a 48-thousand dollar federal grant to work on the
repellant.
Riddle says human-elephant conflict is a growing problem in
south Asia and more settled parts of Africa, and it is more
endangering to the massive pachyderms than even ivory poachers.
When elephants leave designated sanctuaries to graze on crops,
they`re sometimes shot.
Riddle and his assistants have spent several years creating and
testing the repellant and a device for dispensing it. He and his
wife -- Heidi -- plan to use part of the grant to travel to India
this year to test the new chemical and its dispenser.
Posted by Mike Hellgren
