Elephants on a Binge

The 2,500 elephants that roam South Africa's huge Kruger National Park are normally friendly enough. Last week however, even park rangers kept their distance from the beasts. One elephant recently sat down on a Volkswagen and flattened it, though the two German tourists inside had time to escape.

Others try to scratch themselves by rubbing against autos, with unfortunate results for the bodywork. Some smash down boundary fences, uproot trees and chase African herdsmen; occasionally, they kill someone. Whether they turn vicious or merely playful, all of them sway and totter about a great deal, as if they were drunk. In fact, they are. Once a year at this time, Kruger Park's elephants go on one of the world's biggest binges.

The cause of it all is the tall marula tree, which right after the rainy season bears a succulent, plumlike fruit that the elephants love. Local Africans use the marula fruit to make a highly potent beer, but one elephant can eat enough fruit in a day to supply a whole village. Then the elephant goes to a water hole and drinks gallons of water. The result: its stomach immediately becomes a huge still in which the fruit ferments and forms alcohol. The elephant becomes hopelessly drunk, reeling around wildly and often standing up on its hind legs to reach more fruit. Each year the park's rangers have to shoot about 30 elephants who become mean drunks, and tests of their blood show a staggering alcoholic content. Most of the elephants go away to sleep off their hangovers, but they always come back for more. Unmindful of their reputation, they seem to forget what happened last time.

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