>>Now wait a minute here this is nothing new and has been
recorded in beekeeping magazines for years prior to
so-called african arriving.

All right.  EHBs can also kill a horse although AHB will send out 
many times more suicide stingers and keep attacking for a longer 
distance.  Why keep commiting suicide on a fleeing predator?  There 
was a report from Florida where they found pounds of bees inside a 
horse.  It's possible the report was exaggered I suppose...

In any case, killing a horse (unless it's rubbing up against a 
beehive) is poor predator/threat recognition and, as such, an 
undesirable trait.  If thousands of workers are sacrificed to kill a 
horse, it leaves the colony in a much worse shape should a bear come 
along the next day or should the winter's onset be a couple of weeks 
away.

On the other hand, bees do not study and catalog mammalian species.  
Perhaps, by default, they can only respond to any large, smelly, dark 
mammal that get's a little too close to the colony by attacking.

Waldemar

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