Vodka 'saved' elephants in Siberian freeze

[Guardsman Bass]

BBC News

Two elephants have been saved from the deadly Siberian cold by drinking vodka, Russian officials say.

They say the animals had to be taken out into the bitter cold after the wooden trailer they were travelling in caught fire in the Novosibirsk region.

The elephants, aged 45 and 48, suffered frostbite to the tips of their ears amid temperatures of -40C (-40F)

But they were warmed up by two cases of vodka mixed with warm water, one official was quoted as saying.

"They started roaring like if they were in the jungle! Perhaps, they were happy," the official told Russia's Ria Novosti news agency.

The animals continued their recovery in a heated garage of a local college where they were brought by a truck under police escort.

The elephants belong to a Polish circus, which has been touring the region, reports say.

Like with humans, alcohol can make animals feel warmer but it actually lowers their core body temperature, scientists say.

But Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper quoted Novosibirsk zoo director Rostislav Shilo as saying that the elephants were not harmed or intoxicated by the vodka, and that without it they would have died of hypothermia or pneumonia.

In all seriousness, though, I'm glad the elephants are recovering from that.

[Aaron MkII]

Huh, I would have thought they would apply the warm water directly and not bother with vodka.

45 and 48 though, how long do elephants typically live?

[Guardsman Bass]

Fairly long. Usually 40-60 years, and sometimes longer.

[NeoGoomba]

I'm surprised they weren't given the vodka from Shirtless Putin's own hand!

[Zaune]

Huh, I would have thought they would apply the warm water directly and not bother with vodka.

That's the Russians for you. Only people my dad admits to being out-drunk by.

[Sephirius]

re: warm water That would probably be a bad idea; wouldn't that accelerate the heat loss? some temporary warmth that would last all of a few seconds, then much misery.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

re: warm water That would probably be a bad idea; wouldn't that accelerate the heat loss? some temporary warmth that would last all of a few seconds, then much misery.

What!?

Warm water, especially water as hot as you can safely drink, would have noticeably more joules of energy in it, and then that energy is being placed inside of the stomach at the very centre of your body. That is genuinely useful.

[Zaune]

I think the article means that the elephants were drinking the hot water, Sephirus.

[Korgeta]

From experince I can deftinately say drinking warm alcohol does not help on a freezing night, it helped me nearly catch hypothermia!

[K. A. Pital]

It does help, albeit for a short moment, depends on the inner reserves of heat you have at the time.

[Guardsman Bass]

I thought the way the article described it was hilarious. It gives a new meaning to the phrase, "Roaring drunk".

[Grumman]

While the vodka would make the elephants more likely to freeze to death, is it possible that it would help protect them from frostbite? You're losing more heat, but it's because more blood is circulating to the surface, right?

[Aaron MkII]

They were also brought into a heated garage, thats what would help. If they had kept them outside then it would have caused more harm eventually.

[Alkaloid]

While the vodka would make the elephants more likely to freeze to death, is it possible that it would help protect them from frostbite? You're losing more heat, but it's because more blood is circulating to the surface, right?

I think that would be given the case given it's the tips of their ears that were freezing. Those ears radiate a hell of a lot of heat very fast, not really supposed to be exposed to that sort of cold.

[Napoleon the Clown]

More blood-flow to the ears would make the hypothermia come on even faster. I'm guessing elephants have the same reaction to cold that humans do, namely anything not important reduces blood flow when it gets too cold. The ears would be among these things.

[Zixinus]

So, it didn't so much as save their lives but temporarily alleviate and treat their frostbite?

[Steel]

So, it didn't so much as save their lives but temporarily alleviate and treat their frostbite?

Well that depends on if they could live afterwards with the quantity of ear they would otherwise have lost to frostbite. If they would have lost half their ears and that means they die of overheating when they are brought back inside then the reduced frostbite due to vodka did save them.

[Chrislove22]

Scientists say the vodka actually made the situation worse, but the elephants were roaring as if they were happy, so who's to say if this so-called "science" has any validity at all? Let's have a few vodkas and figure it out.

[Alkaloid]

Well, it decreased the chances of loosing ears to frostbite for a short period in exchange for an increase in the rate at which the core body temp would drop. At that point you are just betting on how long it takes to get them out of that sort of cold, too long and they die, maybe could have survived, to short and they live, may or may not have to amputate their ears unnecessarily.

Edit: I'm not saying anyone should actually weigh this up, if you're stuck in the freezing snow for fucks sake don't drink vodka or feed it to your pets, I'm just saying you could make an argument it saved their extremities.