Even the faintest buzz of a bee whirring by is enough to make you tense up, your eyes scanning the sky for a sign of the tiny insect whose prick can make even the most stoic among us weep in pain. Elephants, it turns out, share our reaction to bees. And that inherent fear of being stung is being used to help save the species. The elephant population has suffered a drastic decline in recent decades. Just over a century ago, as many as 5 million elephants roamed Africa, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Now, there are fewer than 50,000. While poaching remains one of the biggest threats to elephants, interactions with humans is a growing problem. Conflicts are particularly prevalent in areas where farming is a primary source of economic development. "Elephants will graze through inhabited areas," Hayley Adams, PhD, a veterinarian who has spent 20-plus years working on conservation in Africa, said. "In one day, an elephant can wipe out a family’s entire crop." Elephants, of course, can't be contained by traditional fences — they'll break right through. And the strategies deployed by some farmers, such as using guns or firecrackers to scare the creatures off, often just create more conflict. Startled elephants sometimes charge or become aggressive. Farmers respond with poison or spears. Enter the bees. It appears that elephants, who are famously smart creatures, have learned their lesson from past encounters — like humans, they'll try to avoid the prick at all costs. Videos posted by Lucy King, PhD , who has been researching the interactions between elephants and bees for more than a decade, shows entire packs of elephants flee from the sound of an angry swarm.