Now here’s something you don’t hear every day: Turkish officials found and treated a bear suffering the affects of “mad honey” (known as deli bal in Turkish).
In other words, this bear was high, tripping thanks to the effects of the potent hallucinogenic, and in distress. But ultimately, she was just fine as the honey isn’t particularly dangerous.
On August 11th, the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry found a brown bear cub that was disoriented.
The cub was found in the Duzce province in northwestern Turkey, and was believed to have consumed a bit too much mad honey , The Guardian reports.
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Video footage shows the cub wobbling around.
A video taken by Turkish officials and uploaded by The Guardian shows the bear whining and looking around as if disoriented, after being rescued and placed in the back of a truck.
Luckily, the bear was still in good health.
After rescuing the cub, officials brought her to a vet, where she got a checkup. The vet determined that she was in good shape, and would be okay to release within a few days.
The Agricultural and Forestry Ministry took to Twitter to document the poor bear’s ordeal.
They also used the platform to find a name for the cub. Yahoo! reports that they ended up naming her Balkiz .
Mad honey occurs naturally in the wild.
It’s the result of bees feeding on particular rhododendrons that produce a toxin called grayanotoxin. These flowers grow in the Kaçkar mountains above the Black Sea, where Turkish beekeepers can produce it in limited quantities.
The kind of honey this flower produces is much different from regular honey.
If bees get ahold of enough of these flowers, they’ll make a honey that’s mud-red in color and bitter to the taste.
And the toxins from the flowers produce a high in mammals.
The honey has hallucinogenic properties, hence why it’s called mad honey. In Turkey, it’s used to treat conditions like impotence and hypertension, and is taken on its own or with warm water or milk, just before breakfast.
It was imported to Europe from the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century.
The Europeans of the time called it “miel fou” (which essentially also means mad honey), and would ad it to ale.
Of course, like other drugs, it has potentially dangerous side effects, too.
Too much of the honey can induce nausea, fainting, seizures, and arrhythmia. It can also cause a radical drop in blood pressure. While it’s virtually harmless in small quantities, consuming too much can be fatal.
Luckily, Balkiz didn’t consume a lethal amount of mad honey.
Just a day later, on August 12th, the cub was healthy enough to be sent back out to the wild. Officials filmed her release and posted it to Twitter.
