I’ve read many reports of animals who love alcohol just as much as humans do. But until now, I never knew that their wild parties could lead to drunken brawls. The West Australian has a story about a herd of elephants that had a little too much beer and then went on a rampage. Here’s an excerpt:

Six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted as they went berserk after drinking rice beer in India’s remote northeast, a wildlife official said today [23 Oct 2007].

The 40-strong herd uprooted an electric pole while looking desperately for food on Friday in Chandan Nukat, a village nearly 240km west of Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya state, said Sunil Kumar, a state wildlife official. “There would have been more casualties had the villagers not chased them away,” said Dipu Mark, a local conservationist.

The elephants are known to have a taste for rice beer brewed by tribal communities in India’s northeast. Four wild elephants had died similarly in the region three years ago.

There’s another story of elephants raiding the liquor cabinet at the end of this piece.

[The West Australian: Drunk elephant rampage ends in death]