The Bohemian waxwing, a Yukon songbird that feeds on fruit, becomes inebriated on fermented berries and gets into drunken flying accidents. The Animal Health Unit headquarters in Whitehorse places the avian lushes in specially equipped drunk tanks to protect them from themselves.
The tiny cages have water and bedding and are kept quiet and dark so that the waxwings can sober up. Some of them are hardcore – one of the birds recently arrived still smeared with the residue of alcoholic berries.