Posted on 11/26/2023 7:36:45 AM PST by DFG
As odd as it might seem, a train conductor confirmed to Cowboy State Daily that grizzly bears and other wild animals frequently get intoxicated on fermented grain spilled from rail cars, and too many of them end up getting killed as a result.
Paul Summers told Cowboy State Daily he’s seen it with his own eyes.
“Especially in the summertime, it’s common to see bears, including grizzlies, drunk on grain. You will see them wobbling,” he said. “You will see them staggering.”
In fact, he said the bears’ own stubbornness often works against them, as they don’t want to move off the tracks despite warning horns from approaching trains. It can essentially be a game of chicken between the grizzlies and trains, with the bears losing every time.
Nothing Funny About It At first, the notion of drunken bears stumbling along railroad tracks might seem humorous. But such drunkenness, as well as the general danger of the rail lines, kills numerous wild critters, said Summers. He worked on BNSF Railway trains as a conductor from 2013-2022. He now lives in Seattle and works for Amtrak.
During his tenure with BNSF, Summers said he was frequently on a roughly 500-mile stretch of track running between Havre, Montana, and Spokane, Washington. Part of that runs through prime grizzly habitat over Marias Pass in Montana near Glacier National Park and other vast wild country.
He loves wildlife, and said it still troubles him to think of all the animals he saw killed by trains.
“We’ve been on trains that have probably killed every type of large animal that lives in the state of Montana,” he said.
As bad as it was in the mountains, Summers said it could be worse out on the prairies, especially with antelope herds.
(Excerpt) Read more at cowboystatedaily.com ...
Also. Too many snakes on the plane.
Grizzly ping
My long time next door neighbor had grape vines in his back yard. In our area of southeast Michigan grape vines are extremely prolific. The unpicked grapes rippen and ferment on the vine in later summer. That’s when drunken birds start flying into buildings, and doing all sorts of odd things you never see birds do.
We had flocks of drunk birds in the San Fran Bay Area many years ago. The pyracantha berries had fermented on the bushes and the birds got tipsy.
Cedar waxwings and robins are most likely to gorge on fermented blackberries, pyracantha or juniper berries, crabapples or mountain ash fruits.
Encountering a grizzly is scary enough but now I have worry about an angry drunk.
Australia. Too many dead kangaroos along the tracks.
How do the bears get drunk? Figs?
That is hilarious...
They aint seen nothing yet- Just wait till they start shooting heroin!
From all the discarded black label beer that noone drank
On the other hand, you might run into a happy drunk grizzly
Bears should stick to beer from the land of sky blue waters
These train derailments are hard to believe. I thought the story posted was hard to believe, too, but I guess this is wider spread than anyone would have thought and has been going on for years.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/12/21/Railroad-hopes-to-prevent-drunken-bears/3632598683600/
They aint seen nothing yet- Just wait till they start shooting heroin!Or cocaine.
I heard a story about a grizz that they suspected had gotten into fermented juniper berries. It was rolling around on its back with its front paws holding its rear paws.
Rail Conductor Says There Are Too Many Drunk Grizzlies On Train Tracks“
What?? Who’s buying for them?
Fix the rail cars so they do not leak.
Some drunks get angry. Others get silly. Let’s hope that drunk bears just get silly.
No sassquash?
lol that woulda been something to see-
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