Managing interactions between humans and wild elephants is a complex problem that is increasing as a result of agricultural and urban expansion into and alongside protected areas. Mitigating negative interactions requires the development of new tools to reduce competition and promote coexistence. Many studies have tested various mitigation techniques across elephant ranges in Africa and Asia, with varying levels of success. Recently, strobe lights have been suggested as a potential mitigation strategy in deterring African lions Panthera leo from kraals or bomas, but this technique has to date not been tested to reduce negative human–elephant interactions. Over a 2-year period (November 2016–June 2018), we tested the effectiveness of solar-powered strobe light barriers in deterring African elephants Loxodonta africana, in collaboration with 18 farmers in a community adjacent to the Chobe Forest Reserve and Chobe National Park in northern Botswana. Although elephants were more likely to pass by fields with solar-powered strobe light barriers (which was probably a result of selection bias as we focused on fields that had previously been damaged by elephants), they were less likely to enter these treatment fields than control fields without such barriers. Our findings demonstrate the efficacy of light barriers to reduce negative human–elephant interactions in rural communities.

中文翻译：

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迪斯科恐慌：太阳能频闪灯屏障减少了博茨瓦纳乔贝区非洲象非洲象的野外入侵

管理人类与野生大象之间的互动是一个复杂的问题，随着农业和城市扩张进入保护区并沿着保护区，这一问题正在增加。减轻负面互动需要开发新的工具来减少竞争和促进共存。许多研究已经在非洲和亚洲的大象范围内测试了各种缓解技术，取得了不同程度的成功。最近，频闪灯已被建议作为阻止非洲狮的潜在缓解策略黑豹来自 kraals 或 bomas，但迄今为止尚未对这种技术进行测试以减少负面的人与大象相互作用。在 2 年期间（2016 年 11 月至 2018 年 6 月），我们测试了太阳能频闪灯屏障在阻止非洲象方面的有效性非洲象牙，与博茨瓦纳北部乔贝森林保护区和乔贝国家公园附近社区的 18 名农民合作。尽管大象更有可能通过带有太阳能闪光屏障的田地（这可能是由于选择偏差的结果，因为我们关注的是以前被大象破坏过的田地），但与对照组相比，它们进入这些治疗田地的可能性更小没有这种障碍的领域。我们的研究结果证明了光屏障在减少农村社区中人与大象的负面互动方面的功效。