Animals Are Beautiful People
On youtube!
Source (follow the other parts at youtube)
This film is by Jamie Uys, who also made the film The Gods Must Be Crazy.
This film features creatures of the Kalahari, the Namib, and the Okavango Delta– all of which are in Southern Africa.
The only part I don’t like, although perhaps its most famous or infamous, is the scene in which the animals get drunk by eating fruit from the marula tree. That most likely doesn’t happen, simply because no fruit in the wild gets to ferment to that level before it is eaten. However, we have a similar legend in my part of the world. Supposedly, ruffed grouse eat too many over-ripe berries in late summer and become quite drunk. That’s why they fly into windows.
I doubt both of the stories.
In the film’s case, I think an elephant would have to eat a large amount of over-ripe fruit in order to get drunk.
But it’s still a good film!
My brother made me watch this a few months ago. I’ve been a big fan of TGMBC for years, and never knew this was out there! Some of the editing and narrations had me in stitches.
I was wondering about the elephant and being drunk as well…I’ve seen smaller animals get somewhat intoxicated from eating fermented fruit, but they were really small…like squirrels and other rodents. Oh well, like you said, it’s a dubious thing but still fun to watch.
I’ve seen scrub jays apparently get drunk after eating fermented wild rose hips (a last resort food at the end of winter).
Ruffed grouse do get drunk on wild berries that have fermented, and I’ve known them to fly into windows. It’s something of a legend here, because these grouse are so flighty that they don’t need to be drunk to fly into things.
Of course, some of these grouse are also crazy tame and curious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fpo00nA2q8
I guess they don’t know how good they taste!
That’s my favorite “wild game” meat. It think it even trounces pheasant.