Seems instead they may be slightly poisoned by
an ihabitant of the same tree...
A beetle pupa, which is used to make poison arrows..
drugged or drunken?
Drunken elephant stories debunked., page
Pages:
ATS Members have flagged this thread 0 times
ATS Members have flagged this thread 0 times
Topic started on 21-12-2005 @ 07:08 PM by Umbrax
*
There is an old story that Elephants get drunk when they eat fermented fruit rotting on the ground. A recent study debunks the drunken elephant tale.
www.sciencedaily.com
Folk lore has it elephants can get drunk by eating fermented fruit rotting on the ground, but a study debunks that claim, despite "eyewitness" accounts.
The study -- to appear in the March-April issue of the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology -- says anecdotes of drunken elephants go back more than a century.
Steve Morris, a biologist at the University of Bristol in England and a co-author of the study told National Geographic News, "People just want to believe in drunken elephants."
The tales say elephants eat rotten fruit that falls from African marula trees, a member of the same family as the mango.
But Morris says it's unlikely an elephant would eat fruit if it were rotten, more-or-less wait for it to ferment.
In any case, producing a liter of marula wine requires 200 fruits. So an elephant would have to eat more than 1,400 well-fermented fruits quite quickly to start to get drunk.
National Geographic News commented: It may make for a good story and a durable myth, but you're not likely to ever see a drunken elephant sitting under a marula tree.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
*Image from planetzot.com.
There is an old story that Elephants get drunk when they eat fermented fruit rotting on the ground. A recent study debunks the drunken elephant tale.
www.sciencedaily.com
Folk lore has it elephants can get drunk by eating fermented fruit rotting on the ground, but a study debunks that claim, despite "eyewitness" accounts.
The study -- to appear in the March-April issue of the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology -- says anecdotes of drunken elephants go back more than a century.
Steve Morris, a biologist at the University of Bristol in England and a co-author of the study told National Geographic News, "People just want to believe in drunken elephants."
The tales say elephants eat rotten fruit that falls from African marula trees, a member of the same family as the mango.
But Morris says it's unlikely an elephant would eat fruit if it were rotten, more-or-less wait for it to ferment.
In any case, producing a liter of marula wine requires 200 fruits. So an elephant would have to eat more than 1,400 well-fermented fruits quite quickly to start to get drunk.
National Geographic News commented: It may make for a good story and a durable myth, but you're not likely to ever see a drunken elephant sitting under a marula tree.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
*Image from planetzot.com.
Pages: ^^TOP^^
The Above Top Secret Web sites are a
wholly owned social content community of
The Above Network, LLC.
This content community relies on
user-generated content from our member contributors.
The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership
who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides
a collaborative venue for free expression.
ATS Server: www2.theabovenetwork.com
Header data: 0.002 seconds
Page processed in: 0.037 seconds
wholly owned social content community of
The Above Network, LLC.
This content community relies on
user-generated content from our member contributors.
The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership
who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides
a collaborative venue for free expression.
ATS Server: www2.theabovenetwork.com
Header data: 0.002 seconds
Page processed in: 0.037 seconds
