MAD HONEY BEAR
In August, park rangers in Turkey’s Duzce province rescued a female bear cub found staggering and disoriented. Video shows the animal sitting in the back of a pickup, moaning and wobbling and seeming to look and paw at things that aren’t there, very clearly tripping on something. The bear was indeed righteously stoned; betrayed by bears’ legendary love of honey, she had made the mistake of feasting on honey made from rhododendron nectar, which contains the potent neurotoxin grayanotoxin.
Known as “mad honey” or “deli bal” in Turkish, this honey is only found in the Kaçkar mountains above the and , which mainly grow in those locations. The honey has a muddy red colour, a bitter taste and a sharp scent, and even a teaspoon of it is enough to produce euphoria and mild hallucinations. In larger quantities, it can cause stronger hallucinations, reduce blood pressure to dangerous levels, and cause nausea, fainting, seizures, arrhythmia and occasionally death. These properties of rhododendron honey have long been known; in 97 BC the Persian king MithradatesVI used it against the Roman general Pompey the Great who was pursuing his army near Trabzon. He put out bowls of the local honey in the path of the Roman army and three detachments of the troops took the bait, which rendered them delirious and disoriented, at which point the Persians returned and slaughtered the lot. The honey also has more benign uses: it is taken in small quantities by locals as a treatment for high blood pressure, impotence and various other conditions. Long suppressed due to anti-narcotic legislation, production is now being encouraged in Turkey and jars are sold to foreign tourists as well as locals and a kilogramme of the best quality honey can fetch up to 2,000 lira (£260).
