Elephants and Vodka

On the heels of the wine and cheese study comes this story in the Independent about the deep freeze in Russia.

It's getting really cold in Russia, even by their standards, so drastic measures are called for to keep the animals warm.

In the ancient town of Yaroslavl, 100 miles north of Moscow, a travelling circus said it had been forced to start giving its trio of Indian elephants vodka mixed with water in buckets as the mercury dipped.

In Lipetsk, where meteorologists recorded temperatures of minus 32C, the zoo's contingent of macaques was being fortified with cheap French table wine three times a day and in other zoos camels, wild boars and reindeer were being given regular shots of vodka to stave off the chill.

If they give the macaques some cheese to eat before they give them the French table wine, then the macaques won't know they're being given the cheap wine.

Here's my concern, though: Should they really be plying wild boars with strong drink? Don't wild boars cause enough damage when they're sober? I don't know if these zookeepers are thinking clearly.

Also, I don't know if I'm sadly out of date on the science of hypothermia, or if it's the Russians, but when I lived in Montana back when I was in high school, they told us never to drink alcohol in freezing weather. It gives you a temporary rush of heat as the alcohol causes the blood vessels to dilate, but that rush of heat is really your body expelling heat through your skin. And that can cause hypothermia even faster than if you didn't have the alcohol.

I wish the Russians and their animals the best in this cold snap. Vashe zdorovie!