The wild ways animals get buzzed on nature

‘Cocaine sharks’ have gone viral as scientists announced that some Brazilian sharpnose sharks living off the coast of Rio de Janeiro contain the illicit drug, which is often dumped into wastewater.  

While the phenomenon generates plenty of jokes, the situation is quite serious, says Sara Wyckoff, wildlife veterinarian for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

“Animals are being contaminated with not just opioids or illicit street drugs, but everything that we use,” from birth control to antibiotics.

Of course, many human medications—illegal or otherwise—derive directly from nature, from poppies to hallucinogenic mushrooms to the grapes that, when fermented, become alcohol.

And while humans are unique in seeking out such pleasures, several wild animals—from birds to elephants—also get natural boosts. Here are a few intriguing examples.

Cedar waxwings gorge on berries

Known for their striking plumage, which includes a large crest and a black eye mask, this North American species is unusual among birds for its ability to eat only fruit for several months. Fruit can be a great source of energy, but overripe fruits and berries can pose an invisible threat to the birds.

Naturally occurring yeast begins to ferment the ripe fruit, converting sugar molecules into ethanol and carbon dioxide. If the fruit hasn’t begun to rot, it’s technically safe to eat, but it can potentially make the birds drunk.

Like humans, inebriated waxwings display slower reflexes and impaired decision-making, which can make the birds more likely to succumb to predators, vehicles, or window strikes.

“Alcohol is a neurodepressant, so it turns down the nervous system and those quick reflexes. Everything that you would imagine happens when a person is drunk, it happens to animals, too,” Wyckoff says.

A 2020 study led by Piotr Tryjanowski, a zoologist from the Poznań University of Life Sciences in Poland, analyzed scientific papers and YouTube videos, which documented 55 species of birds that drink alcohol—including semi-wild animals or pets. Many of the video clips featured parrots, corvids, and other stereotypically ‘intelligent’ bird species sipping from human beverages.

“Why do they do it? Probably for the same reason we go to bars,” Tryjanowski says.

African elephants get drunk on fruit

Reports of African elephants becoming intoxicated after eating fermented fruit from the marula tree fill both the popular and scientific literature. Some scientists have questioned the validity of these reports, citing the elephants’ large size and the vast quantities of alcohol they would require to get drunk.

As a graduate student at Canada’s University of Calgary, Mareike Janiak studied how different species metabolize ethanol. Janiak’s 2020 study in Biology Letters found a huge genetic variation in various species process alcohol dehydrogenase, the main enzyme involved in breaking down ethanol.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given our love affair with alcohol, humans are very efficient at breaking down ethanol, which makes it harder for us to get drunk than, say, horses, cows, and pigs. Janiak found that many fruit-eating species can detoxify ethanol very well, perhaps owing to the naturally occurring ethanol in overripe fruit.

African elephants, however, have a genetic mutation that makes it harder to metabolize alcohol dehydrogenase, suggesting the giant animals can get drunk from marula fruit, Janiak says. Yet they’re likely not pleasure-seeking, she adds—just hungry.

“Ethanol production happens when there is sugar, and sugar is energy,” Janiak says. “Being able to digest the ethanol might allow you to eat more of the fruit that's technically rotten or bad.”

Reindeer munch on hallucinogenic mushrooms

In Siberia, reindeer—the animal North Americans call caribou—share habitat with the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria, or fly agaric. The fungus, also called the “Christmas mushroom” due to its red cap and white spots, is also a favorite of Siberian shamans, who take it as an “inebriant and a hallucinogen,” according to a 2018 study.

Biologists have documented reindeer eating the poisonous yet nutritious mushroom, whose toxins are neutralized by their complex stomachs.

It’s not clear whether ingesting the fungus causes the ungulates to experience nausea, vomiting, and disorientation as it does in humans.

Tree shrews prefer boozy nectar

In Thailand, Malaysia, and Borneo, seven tree shrew species feed primarily on nectar from bertam palms. The trees’ nectar rapidly ferments, becoming a boozy, sweet syrup of over three percent alcohol.

Unlike cedar waxwings, the tree shrews seem to suffer no ill effects from this steady, high-alcohol diet, according to a 2008 study, nor do the animals show any apparent signs of intoxication.

In 2020, researchers found that other species of bertam pollinators, including squirrels and other rodents, are adapted to consuming high amounts of alcohol.

While animals could imbibe plants for fun, Tryjanowski believes that it’s the underlying nutritional value that’s most important to them.

“Consuming these foods can give you sugar and vitamins—as well as alcohol,” he says.