Top photo: Still from the film Hot Fuzz
Farmers in the town of Komárno in Slovakia are suffering from swans that have become addicted to poppies in their fields. The birds peck at the grains and cannot fly away. Also, in drug intoxication, they began to massively lay eggs, from which new swans are born. This is written by the media in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
The disaster for farmers has been going on since at least the beginning of the year – for the first time, farmers reported a bird invasion back in February. At first they thought that the swans were attracted to puddles of water, but then it became clear that the swans were actually addicted to poppy flowers, which contain opium.
According to the media, citing farmers, the swans began to lay their eggs in the poppy field, and by May the flock numbered from 150 to 200 individuals. Swans are legally protected and farmers don't know how to get rid of them. At the moment, swans continue to live in the fields and eat poppies. The amount of damage from their habitat on poppy plantations has already amounted to about €10,000, Oddity Central writes , citing farmer Balints Pam.
Birds cannot move, cannot fly, are as if under the influence of drugs and become very easy prey for predators. “In principle, this is the same as for drug addicts,” explains naturalist Vladimir Toperker. “If they eat more and more poppies, larger and larger doses, they will die. They overdose."
