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posted by janrinok on Monday February 18 2019, @10:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the listen-to-the-colours dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Humans aren't the only creatures that suffer from substance abuse problems. Horses eat hallucinogenic weeds, elephants get drunk on overripe fruit and big horn sheep love narcotic lichen. Monkeys' attraction to sugar-rich and ethanol-containing fruit, in fact, may explain our own attraction to alcohol, some researchers think.

Now, dolphins may join that list. Footage from a new BBC documentary series, "Spy in the Pod," reveals what appears to be dolphins getting high off of pufferfish. Pufferfish produce a potent defensive chemical, which they eject when threatened. In small enough doses, however, the toxin seems to induce "a trance-like state" in dolphins that come into contact with it, the Daily News[sic*] reports:

At one point the dolphins are seen floating just underneath the water's surface, apparently mesmerised by their own reflections.

The dolphins' expert, deliberate handling of the terrorized puffer fish, Pilley told the Daily News, implies that this is not their first time at the hallucinogenic rodeo.

-- submitted from IRC


Original Submission

[* Ed.'s note: yes, it's a Daily Mail link in the quoted text, not Daily News -- FP.]

 
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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @06:02PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @06:02PM (#803071)

    We can learn so much from animals.

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