Police in a rural town in France are warning drivers of the danger of "drunk" deer. The Saône-et-Loire gendarmerie's social media post explains: "In spring, some wild animals consume buds, fermented fruit or decaying vegetation and can exhibit completely unpredictable behavior."
In a previous Predator Watch article, Bambi Will Mess You Up, I noted that deer are one of the deadliest animals in the U.S. because there are so many vehicle-deer collisions each year. Naturally, one would assume the human driver involved in such a crash would be the one who might have knocked down one too many. But the police weren't referring to drivers in their warning: “No, ladies and gentlemen… not all road users are sober. The proof is in the picture." The Saône-et-Loire gendarmerie added a touch of levity to the serious alert: “If Bambi has been overindulging in forest aperitifs, it might not be the best time to drive as though the road belongs entirely to him… no?”
Here's the video they shared with the public:
The New York Post explains why eating fermented fruit causes deer to appear inebriated — and the danger they pose:
When fruit overripens, natural sugars in it are broken down by yeast, which converts sugars into ethanol. This is the same type of alcohol found in beer, wine and liquor.
The department said that an intoxicated deer can be dangerous due to sudden crossing, incoherent movement, immobilization on the road or erratic behavior.
A collision can happen very quickly, especially at night or on secondary roads.
Officers recommend that residents slow down, avoid sudden steering movements and remain extra vigilant in wooded areas.
I couldn’t find any recent reports of “drunk” deer causing chaos in the U.S., but a deer that terrorized a Long Island neighborhood for three days last year behaved much like an abusive drunk on a bender, including "knocking" on a woman's door. A photo accompanying the New York Post article on that rampage shows a white-tailed deer lying peacefully in a front yard right before it started acting erratically. The next photo shows the impressive damage the deer did to a pickup truck. The New York Post provides more details of the destruction this deer caused:
The demon white-tailed deer had residents of Lake Ronkonkoma on edge beginning Saturday night as it ran amok, damaging property but managing to elude capture before it turned up dead, cops and residents said.
“It ran all over the place for days, smashed right into my neighbor’s pick-up, ran up another’s deck, and smashed into fences and poles too,” resident Tom, who asked to withhold his last name, told The Post of the maniacal mammal.
Environmental Conservation and the Suffolk County police unsuccessfully tried to capture the displaced animal on Sunday.
Authorities chased the deranged deer up and down the quiet block as it ran into brick walls and fences but eventually escaped Sunday afternoon, neighbors said.
However, there’s no evidence that the deer was actually intoxicated. For the next verified drunken animal story, we need to head back to Europe.
In 2005, elk, after partaking of some fermented apples, surrounded a nursing home in Sweden. They were so belligerent that police with dogs were not able to drive them away. The Guardian reported that the situation was only brought under control when hunters with guns arrived. One forester told a local newspaper at the time: "It's not unusual for elks to get drunk. They don't recognize the difference between fermented and not fermented and stuff themselves down to the last apple."
Apparently, it’s not unusual for moose to get drunk in Sweden either, as a Swede named Per Johansson found out in 2011. After getting drunk on — what else — fermented apples, a moose apparently returned to the apple tree in Johansson’s neighbor's yard, where it got stuck. Fortunately, the moose was okay after the tree was cut down, and it was released into the woods.
Hopefully, French drivers heed the police’s warning and steer clear of deer on the road — drunk or not. A friend of mine in the Midwest says members of her family have been involved in four such incidents, all of them frightening. Share in the comments if you’ve ever had a close call with a deer on the road.
