Veterinarians have set up a kind of rehabilitation center for lorikeets coping with "hangovers."
Posted on 06/04/2010 11:53:50 AM PDT by nickcarraway
These seemingly inebriated birds are presenting a mystery for veterinarians struggling to explain their behavior.
Hundreds of seemingly drunk parrots are falling out of trees and the sky in a northern Australian town, mystifying veterinary surgeons who are struggling to care for them.
The brightly colored lorikeets are showing classic signs of drunkenness by losing all coordination and passing out, and then cowering in cages as they recover from their "hangovers".
"They definitely seem like they're drunk," said Lisa Hansen, a veterinary surgeon at the Ark Animal Hospital in Palmerston, near Darwin. "They fall out of trees... and they're not so coordinated as they would normally be. They go to jump and they miss the next perch."
Hansen said nobody was sure what was causing the symptoms, although it may be a plant they are eating. Other theories include an outbreak of a mystery virus.
She said the hospital, which is seeking donations, was caring for about 30 birds at a time with eight arriving each day after being scooped up from lawns and roadsides.
The birds are given sweetened porridge and fresh fruit -- the avian version of hangover food.
"It's probably the equivalent of ice-cream and cans of coke for the lorikeets," Hansen told AFP on Wednesday. "They sit on the floor of the cage and rest their heads on the side, or they curl up in the corner and hide under the paper and block the rest of the world out."
Hansen said "drunk" lorikeets have been seen in Palmerston previously but never in such numbers, adding that the birds can die without proper care.
Veterinarians have set up a kind of rehabilitation center for lorikeets coping with "hangovers."
Polly want a double.
A parrot goes into a bar, orders four shots of the most expensive 30-year-old single-malt Scotch and downs them one after the other.
The barkeep says, “You look like you’re in a hurry.” “You would be too if you had what I have,” said the parrot .
“What have you got?”
“Fifty cents.”
Stupid vets. It is probably berries from a tree like a banyan. The berries ferment and they can get drunk. I have see it with doves and other birds near banyan trees.
“Them yobs seem to have it going, now its our turn. Take me to Kings Street.”
My brother Bill runs a still on the hill
Where he turns out a gallon or two
And the buzzards in the sky get so drunk they can’t fly
Just from sniffing that good old mountain dew.
“’E’s not drunk, e’s just resting!”
I see the same thing with the mulberry trees in the backyard. Birds and squirrels get loaded and fall off the branches every Fall.
Bush’s fault
A parrot, a hedgehog, and a Klingon walk into a bar...
Yep.
We had berry trees in the enclosed quads of our high school.
At lunch, we’d watch the birds get drunk and then SLAM! into the windows.
Good times.
Yep. That's a hangover alright.
I’ve seen flocks of robins and also bluejays flying crazy, falling onto the lawn, flying into each other, but seeming to be having a great time. They were eating fermented elderberrys.
Awww...shhhhhh...
LOL
“They definitely seem like they’re drunk”
Probably eating fermented berries.
You’d think they’d have figured that out already.
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