As reported in the AP, six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted after drinking alcohol in northeast India and going berserk. Apparently the animals have developed a taste for rice beer, fermented by farmers in plastic drums, and come looking for it when they enter villages. Perhaps taking a cue from the aforementioned self-immolating squirrel, the elephants then uprooted a utility pole and, sadly, zapped themselves. "It's great to have such a huge number of elephants, but the increasing man-elephant conflict following the shrinkage in their habitat due to the growing human population is giving us nightmares," said Pradyut Bordoloi, former Assam Forest and Environment Minister.
On another note, three separate people sent me this article with all three of them saying they immediately thought of Zooillogix upon reading it. Does this mean we have finally captured the coveted drunk-elephant-electrocution-news niche? Time to raise our advertising rates!
In the morning, Babar totally regretted this...
Thanks to Kevin Z of The Other 95% for being the first to bring this to our attention.
Environment
Brain & Behavior
Comments
It's a good week for stories like this. Maybe the elephant and the squirrel were in cahoots with the mayor-killing horde of monkeys in Delhi....
Posted by: Ed Yong | October 23, 2007 7:04 PM
"Does this mean we have finally captured the coveted drunk-elephant-electrocution-news niche?"
No, it means you've definitely captured the crazy animal niche. Run with it for all it's worth! People love these stories! If you can work some science and evolution into the story too, so much the better!
Posted by: Ian | October 24, 2007 7:31 AM
crazy
Posted by: Joe Smith | December 10, 2007 1:35 PM