Even butterflies do it. They drink straight neat alcohol. I was working on fourth floor of my chemical company where there was an alcohol drum, which had some spilled alcohol on its surface on the top. I think it was "Black Rajah", a Nymphalid, known to feed on rotten fruits was merrily drinking from the spill. Generally, this butterfly is never seen in that area on the ground level, but somehow, either a migrating or a dispersing Rajah had found the drum. It drank for quite some time.
Yes animals like alcohol and get high on other chemicals, so I think this habit evolved way early in the evolutionary time, well before humans came to the scene. Meena Meena Haribal Boyce Thompson Institute Ithaca NY 14850 Phone 607-254-1258 http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ http://haribal.org/ http://haribal.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/wildwest+trip+August+2007+.pdf<http://www.geocities.com/asiootusloe/http:/www.geocities.com/asiootusloe/mothsofithaca.htmlhttp:/haribal.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/wildwest+trip+August+2007+.pdf> From: bounce-7744966-3493...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-7744966-3493...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Candace Cornell Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 1:10 PM To: cayugabirds-l Subject: [cayugabirds-l] OT: One more for the road Cayuga Birders- Raptor news from across the pond <http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,740157,00.html>. I've read about birds and other wildlife getting tipsy from eating fermented fruits and berries but I didn't realize they'd also go for raw distillates like German Schnapps-yuk. From it's picture, the owl certainly looks like an ornery drunk. Candace [http://www.spiegel.de/static/sys/v9/spiegelonline_logo.png]International<http://www.spiegel.de/international> Thursday, January 27, 2011 German Police Pick up Drunken Owl [http://www.spiegel.de/images/image-165278-galleryV9-fxud.jpg] A wild owl apparently had a wild time in southern Germany. An owl that had evidently drunk too much Schnapps from two discarded bottles was so inebriated that it got picked up by police. The bird will be released once it has sobered up. German police said on Tuesday they had discovered a paralytic owl that appeared to have drunk too much Schnapps from two discarded bottles. "A woman walking her dog alerted the police after seeing the bird sitting by the side of the road oblivious to passing traffic," Frank Otruba, spokesman for the police in the southwestern city of Pforzheim, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. The Brown Owl didn't appear to be injured and officers quickly concluded that it had had one too many. One of its eyelids was drooping, adding to the general impression of inebriation. "It wasn't staggering around and we didn't breathalyze it but there were two little bottles of Schapps in the immediate vicinity," said Otruba. "We took it to a local bird expert who has treated alcoholized birds before and she has been giving it lots of water." The bird will be released once it has sobered up, police said. cro -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
![http://www.spiegel.de/static/sys/v9/spiegelonline_logo.png]International](http://www.spiegel.de/static/sys/v9/spiegelonline_logo.png]International){kind=link}
