Wild Creatures Eat Strange Things
In September 1985, the authorities discovered the body of Andrew Thornton, a drug smuggler, in Tennessee. He had a bag full of cocaine, a failed parachute and the key to a small airplane, which turned up at a crash site about 100 kilometers away.
Investigators spent months searching for the rest of his stash, which they suspected he had dropped along his airborne route. But in the mountains of northern Georgia, a black bear found it first, ingested the cocaine and overdosed.
The strange but true tale, which inspired the new movie “Cocaine Bear,” is the result of an unusual confluence of events, and wildlife professionals across the United States said that they had never seen any other cases like it.
But experts have seen wild animals consume just about everything else. And the animals’ taste for human goods — licit and illicit — can bring trouble for them and for us.
Bears, which have a keen sense of smell, have learned that humans are a reliable source of food. Sometimes, bears even break into homes. In the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts, one bear burglar routinely sought frozen treats.
“That bear entered several dwellings and passed by available food, going directly to the freezer and eating ice cream,” said Andrew Madden, a supervisor at the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.
Bears sometimes stumble upon other substances. In October 2020, a man in Cotopaxi, Colorado, reported that a bear had raided an outdoor freezer, making off with marijuana edibles, said Joseph Livingston, a public information officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Another Colorado resident reported that a bear had run off with a cooler of beer, and bears in that state have been observed biting into beer cans, Mr. Livingston said.
Recreational drugs can make wild animals sick. In 2018, Gibsons Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, in Gibsons, British Columbia, took in a dazed raccoon. Lab testing suggested that the animal had ingested marijuana and benzodiazepines, depressants often prescribed for anxiety.
The center kept the animal warm and quiet, and over the course of a few hours, he came to and was released.
Even regular human food can pose dangers.
Last September, wildlife officials found two dead black vultures in Dutchess County in New York. “The cause of death was theobromine/caffeine poisoning caused by material that looked and smelled like chocolate,” said Kevin Hynes, the wildlife health program leader at the state’s Division of Fish and Wildlife.
Animals that eat garbage often ingest other kinds of trash. Colorado officials had to euthanize a bear they found in a dumpster; a necropsy revealed that its stomach was “full of plastic and cigarette butts and just really nasty stuff,” Mr. Livingston said.
Sometimes, wild animals trying to consume human food find themselves entangled in garbage. Billy Rios, of the Wildlife Rescue League in Virginia, recently rescued a raccoon that required surgery after getting a soda can stuck on one of its legs.
And some animals, including bears, move from yards into homes, creating “a situation where it is now a threat and it has to be removed,” said Dave Wattles, a biologist for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.
Experts recommend people dispose of trash properly and store birdseed, pet food, garbage and other animal attractants in secure, indoor spaces. People should also refrain from feeding wildlife deliberately — and, presumably, from dropping cocaine out of planes.