Summer is almost here, and with it comes party season. Yup, it’s time to break out the barbecue, throw some inflatables in the pool, and crack open a case of beers while the sun is high in the sky. But this year, it’s not just humans getting in on the fun: animals are too!
More specifically, deer in eastern France. Video footage emerged last week of a visibly drunken deer stumbling around like Bambi on ice, having gone a little too heavy on the drinks. At this point, you might wonder what irresponsible bartender is serving a deer alcohol?
After all, with a natural lifespan of just six years, there’s no way a deer is legally allowed to drink. On top of that, they don’t have pockets to keep their wallets in, and I can’t imagine them being allowed to open up a tab.
The answer is simple: fruit is falling from the trees and fermenting in the sun, producing natural alcohols that cops have dubbed a “forest aperitif”:
Police in France are warning drivers in rural areas to be on the lookout for "drunk" deer exhibiting erratic behavior caused by the consumption of fermented fruits — or as police called it, a “forest aperitif.” https://t.co/uGT1Vy45cD pic.twitter.com/JVf2HS8QRR
— ABC News (@ABC) May 13, 2026
Oh deer…
Even when sober, deer are notoriously not road safe, regularly leaping in front of speeding vehicles like they have a death wish. But according to the French cops, drunken deer are even more cavalier about heading into traffic. They’ve put out a specific reminder to motorists about the dangers of drunken animals wreaking havoc, saying:
“We slow down, we anticipate, we avoid car accidents, and we double the vigilance in a wooded are If Bambi overdoes it on forest aperitif[s], it might not be the time to drive like you own the road, no?”
This behavior is not limited to deer. Many animals become inadvertently drunk after consuming naturally fermented fruit. Most of the time, it’s harmless – how much trouble can a drunken pigeon really cause? But when we’re talking about chimpanzees and bears, things get a teeny bit more hazardous.
When elephants get drunk? Well, it can get apocalyptic. In 2010, in India, 70 elephants smashed their way into a building containing a fermented rice drink for an upcoming festival. They dipped their trunks in and sucked up the lot, resulting in a pachyderm bender that killed three people and destroyed 60 buildings.
The sozzled elephants eventually collapsed, leaving tens of gigantic and immovable animals passed out in a drunken stupor surrounded by the wreckage what used to be a peaceful village. So, if drunken deer are causing havoc on French roads, maybe they should just be thankful they’re not dealing with a herd of aggressive boozed-up elephants.
Published: May 13, 2026 05:13 am