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Study: Birds Slur Their Songs When Drunk, Just Like Humans

Posted by samzenpus on from the how-dry-I-am dept.

An anonymous reader sends word of researchers getting zebra finches drunk for science. "In the latest example of strange science, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland got some finches drunk and watched what happened. Their main finding? Like drunk humans, boozed-up birds slur their 'speech.' For the study, the researchers gave grape juice to one group of zebra finches and an alcoholic juice cocktail to another group. The cocktail-quaffing finches became somewhat inebriated, with blood alcohol levels of 0.05 percent to 0.08 percent, according to NPR. 'At first we were thinking that they wouldn't drink on their own because, you know, a lot of animals just won't touch the stuff,' Christopher Olson, a researcher at the university, told NPR. 'But they seem to tolerate it pretty well and be somewhat willing to consume it.'"

3 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Animals love to drink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In the US alcohol is demonized compared to many european countries. But the fact is many animal species like to be drunk just like humans. There was a documentary showing elephants, giraffes and monkeys getting drunk on fermented fruits.

    1. Re:Animals love to drink by heldal · · Score: 4, Interesting

      When I was young and worked as a sailor, we would occasionally dip bread in etanol and feed it to seagulls. Not only were they crazy after it, but they got really drunk and wanted more, more, more. It attracted a large number of birds and they started acting more and more "human", crashing into each other mid-air, fighting, yelling etc. The behavioral pattern was very familiar indeed. There was no doubt they knew the effects of what they ate and that they were craving for it. Although they would come for normal bread as well, the interest was never as high as when we gave them alcohol.

  2. Re:Is this really science? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I mean, who cares if birds get drunk from alcohol? It has very little use in the real world.

    Can you think of no applications in the study of neurology arising from the fact that animals with fairly complex 'speech', and which the IRB will allow us to dissect, show interesting similarities to humans in their response to alcohol? Nothing, really?