Creative Demons and How to Slay Them

by Richard Holman

There’s a fascinating theory about why there are so many instances of animals apparently seeking intoxication – not just the well-documented cases of elephants or birds becoming drunk on fermented fruit, or cats getting whacked out on catnip, but also wallabies munching poppies, birds chewing marijuana seeds and even dolphins getting high on the emissions from a panicked pufferfish. According to the theory, animals often become stuck in behavioural ruts, and if their environmental circumstances change they become vulnerable. Imbibing narcotics encourages them to ‘depattern’, to push beyond the boundaries of established behaviour and to make discoveries – of, say, a new food source or mating ground – which could in time have an evolutionary benefit for the species as a whole.