Crop Circles Created By Wallabies 'Stoned' On Opium, Australian Officials Say

Some people believe space aliens are responsible for those bizarre patterns found in farmland known as crop circles. Others are now saying the culprits are actually spaced-out critters.

Australia grows 50 percent of the world's legal opium, and you might be a bit shocked to learn what it does to the local wildlife.

Wallabies have been eating the crops and essentially getting "high as a kite," according to an Australian official who talked to the BBC. The marsupials are eating the poppies that grow on the plants, which are used to make painkillers like morphine.

But what they do next is even more bizarre.

The hopped-up creatures often walk around in the fields, creating crop circles that initially confused farmers, The Global Post reported. It's not just the wallabies having a good time inflicting damage on the medical crops -- sheep have also been seen tramping on the crops, The Post reported.

In other places, crop circles are hard to explain phenomenon, and some people believe that they're evidence that aliens have visited Earth.

The addled behavior of wild wallabies became a topic of discussion during a hearing on poppy field security in the Tasmania state parliament.

It turns out the animal kingdom is crawling with its fair share of stoners. Reindeer are said to seek out "magic" mushrooms to escape the reality of long, harsh winters, according to one researcher. The hallucinatory fungi apparently have the same effect on them as they do on humans.

In fact, whole books have been written on the subject of animals' drug use. David Linden's book, The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good, recently took a closer look at how animals consume whatever they can get their paws and beaks on in order to get high.

UPDATE: Though recent media attention has again brought light to this phenomenon(CBS and the Global Post, among others, recently reopened the story), it seems the story was first reported by the BBC in 2009.

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Comments

[Molla Gonzalo]

05:08 PM on 08/11/2011

more info http://www.federaciongalactica.blogspot.com/

[see-ellen2001]

06:36 PM on 08/10/2011

How do they hold the string, measuring tapes and planks with those little paws?

[Kat Ingalls]

09:15 PM on 08/08/2011

that's the coolest thing I've read in a while. Are they responsible for kidnapping the folks who claim to have alien encounters?

[Dave Harpe]

05:36 PM on 08/08/2011

I did an image search, and could not find any crop circles from Australia. If there are any there, they are probably not very interesting.

[hedonistnutritionist]

12:02 AM on 08/08/2011

I really think the author ripped off an article from "The Onion" and posted it as a real news article. That is what it seems like to me. Onion worthy news.

[hazbro24]

05:09 PM on 08/06/2011

Lame, but cool at the same time. Because they aren't making crop circles, more like abstract random crop stumblings.

But heck, party on Wally be.

[Brooooooke]

11:25 PM on 08/04/2011

http://www.themorningstarr.co.uk/2009/06/25/stoned-wallabies-making-crop-circles/

This made me laugh equally as hard when I read it two years ago. :)

Also... STILL no pictures?! I want to see Rocco making his rounds.

[ladywiccan]

01:29 PM on 08/04/2011

I want whatever these coppers are smoking cause it sounds like they found some goooood whacky tobaccy

[catbyte]

11:16 AM on 08/04/2011

LOL

[judi9694]

09:14 AM on 08/04/2011

Whatever, it is fun to think about, like Alice in Wonderland!

[burtongrl]

11:41 PM on 08/03/2011

Really? these animals got so jacked up they made these? Well whatever they have eaten, the united states should take note and package into a diet pill to exercise all the fat a$@es and reinvent the jobless.

[Jennifer Zirn]

11:35 PM on 08/03/2011

Wow, just them stumbling around makes some design that is symmetrical and done to perfection. They do it just by luck when humans (not stone) have to use boards and measuring tape.

[see-ellen2001]

10:33 PM on 08/03/2011

Planet of the Wallabies.

[HekmagaJuximaxx]

09:00 PM on 08/05/2011

"Get your stinkin' paws off me, you damn dirty....hey, what are you anyway? A deer?"

[Keefe Lehman]

10:12 PM on 08/03/2011

Once inherited a cat from a friend who had gotten away with hiding him in his dorm for years. I gave him the name Notorious CAT as the kitty had a weight problem. Not his fault because not only was he stuck in a collage dorm his whole life but a little girl had kicked him down a flight of stairs as a kitten causing him to get some sort of crazy expensive kitty knee surgery. Anyhow I take it the previous owner had also smoked allot because anytime anyone lit a cigarette Notorious CAT would bug out and like jump on top of the person trying to stick his nose in the smoke.

[terryconlan]

09:21 PM on 08/03/2011

Now, let's see. Remember that "Area 51" stuff and the government didn't know anything about it? Now we find out they were using this as a cover for the top secret research they were (and still are) doing there. If I owned one of these crop fields, I'd send a bill to the US government. When they finaly admit they did it, just think what my claim would be worth!