Drunk Aussie parrots falling from sky

TNT Magazine ^ | June 3, 2010 | TNT

[Willie Green]

It seems that the natives of Australia's Northern Territory have found a species as a rowdy and intoxicated as they are.

‘Drunk’ red-collared lorikeets have been found stumbling around, falling out of trees, or simply passed out after being struck down by a mystery illness which causes them to display classic signs of human drunkenness.

The parrots are said stumble around and are very uncoordinated. Some have been found with their heads under paper, apparently trying to block the world out.

They also appear to suffer hangovers – including headaches, disorientation, lethargy, and general unhappiness – sometimes for several months. Others have died from the illness.

According to Ms Hansen, a vetinary surgeon at the Ark Animal Hospital, the drunken lorikeet phenomenon regularly occurs at the end Darwin’s wet season, which typically lasts between November and May each year.

Vets at the hospital feed the lorikeets the equivalent of avian hangover food: sweetened porridge and fresh fruit.

A new twist on the phrase ‘taking care of drunk birds’…

[a fool in paradise]

[battousai]

"mystery illness "

These folks need to watch more nature documentaries, I saw one many years ago where elephants in Africa got drunk eating fallen fruit that had started to ferment and so contained alcohol.

Seems like a likely explanation for these parrots too.

[Puppage]

Drinking & flying kills.

Parrots don't let parrots fly drunk.

[sodpoodle]

There yah go;)

[rfp1234]

They’re pining for the fjords.

[nhoward14]

“Others have died from the illness.”

They’re not dead. They’re resting.

[JoeProBono]

It's not the first time

[AngelesCrestHighway]

[al baby]

Obama walks into a bar with a parrot on his shoulder...

Bartender looks up and says, “Where’d you get that?”

Parrot says, “Kenya, they’re all over the place!!”

[nesnah]

[reagan_fanatic]

[RJS1950]

There was the case of a human I read about a number of years back who did not drink but who had been arrested for public drunkeness and DUI. Doctors and authorities did not believe that he was not drinking but it was finally discovered that he had a rare type of flora in his stomach that fermented sugars and starches he ate and produced enough alcohol in his system to make him drunk. That would be a really cheap good time.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

"Ha!...drunk parrots?....bullcrap!".....

[ßuddaßudd]

I love that joke. . . ▲

[battousai]

Here we go found a clip of that old documentary with all the animals getting drunk :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_euCpewQs2c

[donna]

I’ve seen drunken sparrows under the pyracantha bushes in Phoenix. They eat the red berries.

[R. Scott]

I remember seeing drunk birds in Florida - they too ate berries

[Cyber Liberty]

That’s a potential “Title of the Day” right there, Willie.

[Vigilantcitizen]

I’ve been drunk in Florida, drunk off alcohol made from berries.