Wildlife experts have revealed the most bizarre cases where animals have eaten the strangest things from a bear overdosing on cocaine to birds getting drunk on fermented berries – and why it’s bad for them.
Cocaine Bear has been idolized in the small Southern area where it died since September 1985 after drug smuggler Andrew Thornton II, a former Kentucky narcotics investigator, dropped loads of the packaged white powder across the South during a plane crash.
Thornton’s body was found in a Tennessee backyard with a bag full of cocaine, a failed parachute, and a key to a plane, which was found roughly 60 miles away in North Carolina.
Investigators spent months looking for Thornton’s stash of drugs, but were beaten to it by a bear in the Northern Georgia mountains.
‘The bear got to it before we could, and he tore the duffel bag open, got him some cocaine and OD’d,’ an official from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told the Associated Press in 1985. ‘There’s nothing left but bones and a big hide.’
The bear is believed to have eaten around 75 pounds of cocaine before he died. His remains were found not far from the Tennessee border, where 40 bags of cocaine – worth roughly $20millions at the time – had been ripped open and scattered in the mountains.
Cocaine Bear has been idolized in the small Southern area where it died since September 1985 after drug smuggler Andrew Thornton II, a former Kentucky narcotics investigator, dropped loads of the packaged white powder across the South during a plane crash
Thorton was found in a backyard in Tennessee with a bag of cocaine, a plane key, and a failed parachute. The bear is believed to have eaten around 75 pounds of cocaine before he died
The black bear, who weighed around 175 pounds, had been dead for around a month by the time investigators found him. The bear was later taxidermized and now resides inside the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall.
Cocaine Bear’s story has now inspired a new movie of the same title, to be released this Friday by Universal Pictures.
However, Cocaine Bear is not the only animal that has gotten into trouble and eaten something they shouldn’t have.
A naughty raccoon got high in British Columbia, Canada, in January 2018. Much like Thornton, the dazed animals were found in a yard. Unlike the drug smuggler, they weren’t dead, but were high off marijuana and benzodiazepines.
The Gibsons Wildlife Rehabilitation Center took him in and kept the raccoon warm until the effects subsided within a few hours.
Cocaine Bear wasn’t the only animal that got into things it wasn’t supposed to. A naughty raccoon got high in British Columbia, Canada, in January 2018, marijuana and benzodiazepines. It is unclear how the animal got the drugs, but wildlife experts warn that keep trash properly stored
In Oregon, cedar waxwing birds became drunk after eating fermented berries, leaving them ‘pretty wobbly.’ Many animals, including bears and elephants, can become drunk from fermented fruit
‘Suddenly he was alive and, you know, [he was like]: “Let me go home.” So we released him,’ cofounder Irene Davy said, according to The New York Times.
It’s not exactly clear how the animal got in contact with the drugs, but Davy suggested the raccoon could have eaten an edible or an end of the joint.
Veterinarians are also seeing a rise of animals, especially dogs, getting high in states where weed has become legal, according to the Times.
Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s Curt Allen said that raccoons ‘relentlessly seek out edible garbage.’
In Oregon, cedar waxwing birds are becoming drunk after eating fermented berries, leaving them ‘pretty wobbly.’
‘Because of that disorientation and incoordination, they end up striking windows,’ Molly Honea of Think Wild Central Oregon, told the Times.
The wobbly birds are placed in a oxygen tank to be rehydrated by the organization.
Bohemian waxwings also get drunk off berries in Alaska, as the state is full of ornamental berry trees like mountain ash.
Rick Sinnott, a retired Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist, told the Anchorage Daily News that he doesn’t believe the birds eat the fermented fruit on purpose, but rather just because it’s there.
‘I don’t think they eat fermented berries on purpose — like people go to the bar — but that’s what is there,’ he told the paper. He said the birds become ‘goofy’ and less oriented while on the berries.
‘It just interacts with their physiology and causes them to be a little goofy, lose orientation, stuff like that, when they fly,’ he said.
But birds aren’t the only ones who can’t handle their alcohol. Bears, elk, and elephants also have trouble holding it down after eating fermented fruit.
In addition, to the sneaky animals that are able to snatch human food, they could also become sick.
Two vultures in Dutchess County, New York died after consuming chocolate in September 2022. They died from theobromine/caffeine poisoning, Kevin Hynes, a wildlife expert for New York’s Division of Fish and Wildlife, told the Times.
Another danger to animals is eating human garbage, which can lead to them consuming cigarette butts and plastic and other terrible things.
Wildlife experts recommend humans properly dispose of their trash and to store things like birdseed and pet food in indoor locations.
