Hello Everyone For anyone who is serious about safaris, this will come naturally, as it is only those who have ventured into deep, darkest Africa who will know that one daily activity is a given. When the sun dips down over the edge of the vast savanna plains of Africa, the day coming to an end, it’s SUNDOWNER time. And no matter where you are at sunset, a local beer is the ideal way to go! It’s a strange African phenomenon; this beer drinking activity enjoyed by both locals and visitors alike, yet it’s the tale of the drunken elephant that has had many betwixt. Almost anyone who has visited Africa, or read a brochure about Africa, has heard about elephants getting drunk from the fruit of the marula tree. A member of the same family as the mango, the marula tree grows widely across Africa. Its sweet, yellow fruit is used for making jam, wine, beer and a liqueur called Amarula. But the first flaw in the drunken-elephant theory is that it’s unlikely that an elephant would eat the fruit if it were rotten. Secondly, elephants eat the ripe fruit directly off the tree, not when they are rotten, lying on the ground. Some have even lobbied that if an elephant were to eat  Gorilla news: Saturday, 5th June 2010 - Rwanda hosted "World Environment Day" and celebrated the sixth Kwita Izina Ceremony. (which means giving names to baby gorillas) 2010 is “International Year of Biodiversity” and during the annual Kwita Izina, eleven baby gorillas were named at the foot of the Virunga Mountains in Kinigi, Rwanda. Bye for now 
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the fruit off the ground, it wouldn’t wait for the fruit to ferment. Animals will flock, fly, or run to ripe marula’s gorging theselves, leaving few fruits lying around long enough to ferment! But if fermented fruit on the ground is out of the question, then is the notion that internal fermentation an option? There are many who support this theory, but here’s the question: How much then would it then take to get an elephant drunk? Through calculations of body weight, elephant digestion rates, and other factors, studies have concluded that it would take about 1.9 liters of ethanol to make an elephant tipsy. Assuming a fermenting marula fruit would have an alcohol content of 7%, it would require 27 liters of marula juice to come up with that ½ liter of alcohol. Producing a liter of marula wine requires around 200 fruits. On average, an elephant would have to ingest some 1,400 well fermented fruits to start getting drunk. As the sun set, beer in my hand I pondered over the drunken elephant fable, but the fact of the matter is, that you’re not likely to see a drunken elephant sitting under a marula tree. So cheers to the 2010 World Cup soccer which kicks off on the 11th June! 
* All pictures copyright Lisa Marsden |
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