I'm not completely convinced. About 2 years back we had a spat of 'bird crashes' in Blighty. Just posting here to remind myself to check. Though the cited case may be correct, other phenomena can cause bird crashes. It sticks in my mind because in that year I saws several crashes, and demented birds pecking at windows and car wing-mirrors.
Drunk critters - you have to be kidding ! They all do it. Last night's TV featured Lemurs. OK, this isn't drunk, but it's related. They grab millipedes and coat their fur with the secretions. This deters mosquitoes. Side effect is the alkaloid poison that millipedes gives off. Yep, them Madagascan critters are stoned out their heads. Droopy eyes, dribbling...it's straight out of The Freak Brothers. More amusing than the usual Youtube drunken elephant type stuff.
Interesting anatomical stuff on the species cited. (I'm trying to be constructive, after reading some right twaddle on blogs). Whowever blogged this - thanks. Job well done (it's far too easy to criticise ).
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Doesn't surprise me. While growing up in San Francisco, every spring we would watch the robins get drunk from the fermented berries on the neighbor's pyracantha shrub. The cats on the ground really enjoyed the side effects of this. --JMM
I had the same experience with my pyracantha. It was about 12 tall and by early November the berries had fermented. I could watch the birds stumbling about on the lawn after they had had "a few too many". When flying it was a case of "Here they go loopy lou, here they go loopy lie".
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