There may be certainly some scientific analysis, in addition to anecdotal proof, that some birds search out addictive substances – however it’s fairly restricted.
One instance is that of Rose-ringed Parakeets damaging opium fields in India. The farmers who’re licensed to develop opium for medical functions complain that swarms of the parakeets create big losses for them and generally fly away with entire poppy flowers. The BBC, in a submit titled “India: Opium-addicted parrots ‘wreak havoc’ for farmers“, cites an opium skilled stating that the opium offers the birds on the spot power, and that after they get to this, they fall prey to dependancy. In line with the Each day Mail, “the parrots have turn out to be so addicted that the farmers say they have to be on near-constant alert to cease the birds consuming the seeds and getting excessive”. Admittedly, the Each day Mail is just not precisely a extremely regarded scientific journal, as additionally indicated by the article headline “Polly desires crack”.
Many birds usually eat small quantities of alcohol, as a part of the sugar of their weight-reduction plan might ferment. Hummingbirds are an instance (supply). Nonetheless, this clearly doesn’t, by itself, point out any dependancy.
One other paper regarded on the species and circumstances underneath which birds drink alcohol, analyzing scientific papers and YouTube movies. It concludes that many species drink alcohol, however that a lot of the alcohol is offered by people quite than by nature. Human-provided alcohol consumption is especially present in two clever fowl households, parrots and corvids. However once more, this paper doesn’t point out dependancy.
Certainly, there are indications that birds keep away from fruit with excessive alcohol focus – a really cheap transfer, given the upper danger of accidents when intoxicated (sure, that applies to birds as nicely). For instance, one researcher hypothesizes that older waxwings can detect and keep away from alcohol, based mostly on the discovering that solely younger waxwings died from accidents after intoxication-induced accidents (supply).
The excessive danger of alcohol consumption for birds due to this fact appears to make it unlikely that birds can turn out to be hooked on alcohol – any such dependancy would definitely be rapidly weeded out by evolution. However then once more, shouldn’t the identical apply to people?
Cowl picture: Rose-ringed Parakeet, Delhi space, April 2019
