Intoxicated elephants in S.Africa:
 

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I have read that elephants eat fermented fruit...

These photos are quite interesting and funny as well! ;)

LOL....but poor babies! They must be so confused. I wonder if they'll have a hangover?

I remember a mulberry tree in our backyard when I was a child and there were a few occasions when we spotted a squirrel that seemed a bit loopy. My Mom finally figured that he was eating the mulberries after they had fermented. Don't know if that was really what was going on but he did seem "impaired" at times. ;)

There are some bushes and plants that make the squirrels do loopy things in our yard:

1) chewing euonymous leaves/bark
2) mock orange bush bark (our cats rub on this bush)
3) and this week a young new squirrel got into my evening primrose plants that are in containers we just brought out. He'd bite the plant and chew it and then do somersaults! All parts of the primrose are supposed to be edible!

So some plants too make for odd behavior that we've seen with squirrels.

I can corroborate that. Our last house had an enormous mulberry tree in the back yard, and our dog at the time would spend an inordinate amount of time snarfing the fermented berries that were lying on the ground. No question in our minds she got a little buzz from them.

The squirrels too. I came out one day to find branches & leaves strewn all over the backyard (which we had just mowed & raked the day before). I thought our neighbor had been doing some trimming, and asked him to please pick up the debris. He surprised me when he said it wasn't him and pointed up in the tree to the squirrels, who were loopy and on a tear...

Doc

That is odd... our mulberries sit around a LONG time .... no one seems to want to eat them.??? We have ground hogs, and many many squirrels, possums and raccoons, and occasional deer. :confused:

The birds tend to prefer the berries when they are still on the trees we have noticed.

I've seen news reports over the years about birds in the Northern Territory (Au) actually falling from the sky.

Here's an older article I found


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It can get a bit sad really as it appears that although some recover quickly when cared for with food and water, others tend to stay ill for weeks. I got the impression that the vets weren't sure if it was from the poisoning or from a virus or a combination of both.

I grew up in the Tropics and I remember even as a young child hearing about the birds getting intoxicated from the Umbrella Tree seeds. I also recall (unfortunately) hearing about the relocation of Pigeons that had become pests in the town.