Do Animals Get Drunk?
Not long ago, residents of Gilbert, a small town in Minnesota, began calling the cops on a peculiar neighborhood nuisance. Cedar waxwings, wonderfully colored little birds, were “flying into windows, cars, and acting confused,” local law enforcement reported. The disturbance made headlines in places like NPR: “Minnesota Residents Call Police On Rowdy Drunk Birds.”
What was going on? Apparently, an unseasonable frost had caused the berries the waxwings feed on to ferment earlier than usual, and as a result, the police stated, some were getting a “little more ‘tipsy’ than normal.” The waxwings were at it again a few years later, in Texas, prompting the to run the headline, “Cedar waxwings are the drunken revelers of the bird world.” Rachel Richter, an urban wildlife biologist with the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, a local news outlet, “Sometimes [the waxwings] tend to
