Hundreds of Parrots Drunk in Australia

Animals have long been known to get drunk and act stupid. Such was the case of a moose recently who snacked on some fermented apples and got stuck in a tree. In Australia, they’re seeing hundreds of drunk parrots recently, who seem to be chowing down on fermented berries.

And they say people are the only ones to tie one on.

Veterinarians are working to get the birds sobered up and are taking in several birds per day. People are finding them along roadsides and in yards, and when they’re brought to the doctors they’re being treated with loving care.

So how do you know if a parrot is in fact drunk?

"They definitely seem like they're drunk," said Lisa Hansen, a veterinary surgeon at the Ark Animal Hospital in Palmerston, near Darwin. "They fall out of trees... and they're not so coordinated as they would normally be. They go to jump and they miss the next perch."

So what do you give a bird who’s been on a binge? A mix of sweetened porridge and fresh fruit!

"It's probably the equivalent of ice-cream and cans of coke for the lorikeets," Hansen told AFP on Wednesday. "They sit on the floor of the cage and rest their heads on the side, or they curl up in the corner and hide under the paper and block the rest of the world out."

I’m wondering how many leave rehab just to go back to their old ways.