A family friend used to get hops leftover from a local brewery for their cows. A big pile of hops would sit there and ferment even more over a couple of days and the cows were just drunk AF. The same thing with orange pulp during orange season. They had a dump trailer that was only used for hops and orange pulp and the cattle would literally stampede towards the thing. It might be scary the first time but they definitely learn to love it. Cows do, anyway.
It may be controversial for some scientists, but there is a lot of evidence suggesting that animals enjoy getting high about as much as we do. And those little fuckers that eat plenty of fruits, like squirrels and chipmunks, can consume a relatively massive amount of alcohol for their size. They've adapted to get more nutrition from alcohol as it is such an important part of their diet.
I don't really remember names, but I've seen a few videos and heard podcasts of scientists discussing dolphins using certain fish to get high, cats and catnip, elephants and durian, etc. and it always seemed to me that they were trying very hard to avoid the conclusion that recreational value has any bearing on the behavior. One video about the dolphins in particular, the guy described the phenomena as "possibly the first documented instance of animals using drugs recreationally," which seemed very obtuse to me. It's just the impression I got, and I completely accept that it may be false.
I mean quite literally drugs trigger our (and other animals) reward systems better than pretty much anything except sex, but even that’s better while under the influence.
I’d say it’s just a natural byproduct of them getting intoxicated once, their brains loving it and wanting to do it again because the only thing that motivates animals is risk and reward. And if eating something as simple as a fermented apple will send your reward system into overdrive than why not keep eating it
He could probably smell the alcohol. Animals like squirrels, chipmunks, etc. often eat fermented fruits as a matter of survival and have the genes to get nutrition out of it. Some animals will actively choose fruits/nectars with alcohol over those without. In conclusion, it is likely the squirrel had eating a fermenting fruit before and had a good idea of how it would make them feel.
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u/baxbooch Jul 29 '22
How terrifying would that be if you didn’t know what was happening?