Australia - Parrots in Sydney's Royal Botanical
Gardens are getting drunk on tree nectar that
has fermented in the spring sunshine, it was
reported on Friday.
The Sydney Morning Herald said rainbow lorikeets
in the central Sydney reserve were staggering
around tipsy after eating nectar from the
tree "schotia brachypetala", a member
of the pea family which began flowering this
week.
"It produces a lot of sweet nectar,
a nectar that is a sugary juice. If it ferments
in the heat of the sun it can produce alcohol,"
the gardens' curator, Ian Innes told the newspaper.
"The lorikeets get right into it."
Senior veterinarian at Taronga Zoo, Larry
Vogelnest, said lorikeets in northern Australia
were also known to become intoxicated on fermenting
fruit.
"Basically they behave like drunk people,
staggering around and unco-ordinated,"
he told the Herald.
.
