Australia's "Drunken Parrot Season" Begins!

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Australia's "Drunken Parrot Season" Begins!

It's drunken parrot season in northern Australia!

October is when the wet season arrives in Australia's Northern Territory and with it comes another, far more interesting and uniquely Australian phenomenon: drunken parrot season! Like a weird, avian spring break, every year around this time hundreds of birds - specifically red-collared lorikeets - in and around the city of Darwin begin acting as though they're drunk.

"They exhibit odd behavior like falling over or [having] difficulty flying [and] they keep running into things," veterinarian Dr. Stephen Cutter told Australian Geographic [http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/drunken-parrot-season-starts-in-the-northern-territory.htm]. They also lose their fear of people and begin to act much friendlier than normal; of the thousands that gather at a market in the city, many of them are sometimes "left floundering."

It sure sounds like they're soused - I do pretty much the same thing when I get tanked up - but whether or not they're actually bombed is a mystery. For one thing, the effects lasts for a couple of days rather than just a single Saturday night, and the birds also display less amusing symptoms including respiratory problems and discharge from their nostrils, mouth and eyes. One possibility is that the birds are suffering from both a seasonal virus and the effects of alcohol ingested from fermenting fruit.

Whatever's causing it, Wildcare Inc. NT President Mignon McHendrie says that more and more birds turn up "drunk" every year and that roughly half of those brought into her shelter will die. Ten years ago her organization took in only two or three of the birds, but last year it dealt with a few hundred.

via: Slashdot [http://idle.slashdot.org/story/11/09/27/1410209/drunken-parrot-season-starts-in-australia]


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vrbtny

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Sep 16, 2009
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Almost as good as the drunk Swedish Elk which was found up a tree....

But seriously, I wonder what a drunk parrot sounds like? A drunk person hopefully.
 

Fiz_The_Toaster

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I wonder if these birds chirp, "I love you man" to each other when this happens.
 

TheDooD

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vrbtny said:
Almost as good as the drunk Swedish Elk which was found up a tree....

But seriously, I wonder what a drunk parrot sounds like? A drunk person hopefully.
Yea its hard to believe that there's a bunch colorful birds drunk in the city. It just sounds like they're trying to not say there's beet red boozers wearing bright clothing wondering the streets during mid day.
 

Vie

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Have they tried hunting down people carrying a pipette and a bottle of vodka?
 

Tireseas_v1legacy

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Didn't some Koala's have some opium problems not long ago? Seriously, next thing you're going to hear about are dingoes doing hashish.
 

In Zod We Trust

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I used to live in North Queensland and the tree next to our house used to be filled with about a hundred Rainbow Lorikeets every few days. They often exhibited this kind of behaviour, falling from the tree, hanging upside down and taking minutes to right themselves. We always assumed they'd been getting stuck into the over-ripe berries from a nearby tree and then coming to screech their guts out right next to our living room. It really was like living next to a drunken frat house or something. Or maybe living in an apartment above one bowling alley and beneath another.
 

Lord Krunk

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The_root_of_all_evil said:
Maybe they've just discovered where the Fosters is kept?
Not in Australia, I hope. Anyone here will tell you that Fosters is the pissiest of the piss beers.

...in fact, Fosters is really hard to find here.

I went to America last year with my family, and an ad for Fosters came on with "Australian For Beer" as its slogan. We couldn't stop laughing.
 

Rabish Bini

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ZippyPizzahead said:
And here I thought Drunken Parrot Season was when everyone bought parrot outfits and got pissed.
That's what I thought, and I'm Australian. In fact, I think I'll do this one Saturday night.

Lord Krunk said:
The_root_of_all_evil said:
Maybe they've just discovered where the Fosters is kept?
Not in Australia, I hope. Anyone here will tell you that Fosters is the pissiest of the piss beers.

...in fact, Fosters is really hard to find here.

I went to America last year with my family, and an ad for Fosters came on with "Australian For Beer" as its slogan. We couldn't stop laughing.
Oh, god, Fosters is atrocious,
 

Shamanic Rhythm

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I'm not so patriotic or sensitive that I can't laugh at a good 'even the wildlife is drunk in Australia' joke, but this is kind of rendered not funny when you bear in mind that most of these parrots will probably die.
 

Cedric Wilson

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Lord Krunk said:
The_root_of_all_evil said:
Maybe they've just discovered where the Fosters is kept?
Not in Australia, I hope. Anyone here will tell you that Fosters is the pissiest of the piss beers.

...in fact, Fosters is really hard to find here.

I went to America last year with my family, and an ad for Fosters came on with "Australian For Beer" as its slogan. We couldn't stop laughing.
Well if you look closely at fine print on the Foster's ads, it says the beer is brewed in Texas
 

Thaluikhain

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Shamanic Rhythm said:
I'm not so patriotic or sensitive that I can't laugh at a good 'even the wildlife is drunk in Australia' joke, but this is kind of rendered not funny when you bear in mind that most of these parrots will probably die.
Yeah, not so funny when you read that bit.

...

Funny thing is, lots of Australia wildlife acts that way, at least to an extent.
 

Phantomess

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Danforthe said:
I used to live in North Queensland and the tree next to our house used to be filled with about a hundred Rainbow Lorikeets every few days. They often exhibited this kind of behaviour, falling from the tree, hanging upside down and taking minutes to right themselves. We always assumed they'd been getting stuck into the over-ripe berries from a nearby tree and then coming to screech their guts out right next to our living room. It really was like living next to a drunken frat house or something. Or maybe living in an apartment above one bowling alley and beneath another.
I used to live just outside of Brisbane. Same thing.

The theory was that the nectar from the bottlebrush used to get them drunk. Or some such. It's always hilarious, though. I remember coming home and finding one staggering up the garden path. I had the urge to fold my arms, tap my foot and say "And where have YOU been?".