WATCH: This Deer Got So Drunk on Fermented Plants That Police Had to Warn Drivers to Be Careful Nearby

Somewhere in rural eastern France, a deer recently discovered the joys of fermentation. It’s good for your gut. It provides a wide range of beneficial probiotics that improve digestion. It can also get you f—ked up.

Police in the Saône-et-Loire region posted video footage of the deer sprinting through a field, leaping about—frolicking, really—after having consumed, what local authorities suspect were fermented buds, rotting plants, or overripe fruit. All of which naturally produce alcohol as they decay in the summer heat.

At multiple points, the deer spun in circles for a bit before losing balance and stumbling back up to its feet, only to look around. It was as if the deer was looking for the person who shoved it to the ground, perhaps to start a fist fight in which it would get its butt kicked.

Police in France Had to Issue a Warning About a Deer That Appeared to Be Wasted

The French police posted the video as a warning to drivers on rural roads, reminding motorists to be on the lookout for fellow citizens drunk on delicious French wine, as well as for intoxicated wildlife behaving Frenchly.

It’s a silly story, and one that seems to occur with a shocking degree of regularity. Animals of all kinds are getting drunk constantly. Researchers have documented drunk birds flying into windows after eating fermented berries, moose getting stuck in trees while searching for fermented apples, and elephants becoming disoriented after consuming naturally fermented fruit.

Just last month, I wrote about chimpanzees that were filmed getting wasted on fermented fruit. That one actually had an extra kick of scientific intrigue, as researchers documented the chimps sharing the fermented fruit, like they were at a little chimp bar, passing around a bottle of chimp tequila.

In Sweden, police once responded to calls about intoxicated elk wandering through neighborhoods after feasting on fermented apples left to rot in backyards, though, to be fair, officials say the elk are incapable of getting drunk off of the fermented apples because they are simply too large for the alcohol to affect them. It’s like how Andre the Giant had to drink a barrel of beer to get drunk.

Nature brews alcohol all the time. Fruit falls, yeast gets involved, sugars ferment, and hungry wildlife get a good buzz going before getting rowdy. The difference is that humans usually understand what’s happening when someone starts staggering around and slurring their speech. A deer does not.

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