Vodka solves Jumbo problem

DOCTORS ADVISE against it, but two circus elephants called Jenny and Margo, marooned in Siberia, have fought off frostbite and pneumonia by downing 10 litres of vodka.

‘‘They were in a Polish circus trailer on the road between Novokuznetsk and Omsk,’’ Alexander Davydov, a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Emergencies, said. ‘‘It caught fire and they had to be led quickly out of the vehicle.’’

Temperatures were sinking below minus 35 degrees Celsius and Leonid Labo, their trainer, made them hop from one foot to another, mimicking one of their acts. But that wasn’t enough. Two crates of vodka, a day’s rations for the whole travelling circus, were emptied into a tub and, diluted with water, for the elephants.

This is not unknown in Russian circuses. In 2006, Russia’s coldest winter for three decades, another Indian elephant was warmed up in a similar way and became blind drunk, ripping up radiators, before slumping into a deep sleep. The latest elephants, aged 45 and 48, could evidently hold their drink.

Doctors warn while vodka can seemingly warm you, it actually lowers the body temperature. Scores of vodka-drunks die in Russia every winter from hypothermia.

A vet found only a slight trace of frostbite on the elephants’ ears the next day. Labo had to be hospitalised.