What’s this I hear about elephants drinking vodka to stay warm?

Two elephants nearly suffered a bad case of frostbite after getting stuck in the cold in Siberia before two cases of vodka came to their rescue...

By Adrian Collins

---

What were they doing outside?

It seems the trailer they were travelling in caught fire in the Novosibirsk region of Siberia. The elephants were touring with a Polish circus in the area, and they were not pleased to be stuck outside. At 46 and 48, these elephants were not young guns who were hardy enough for the cold, although some elephants can live to be over 70 years old.

How cold is it out there?

Stalin used to send people to work in the gulags in Siberia when he was in charge, so basically it's an unpleasant place to be outdoors. Temperatures outside reached about 40 degrees below zero for the two elephants, a fair whack short of their usual comfort zones in most of their natural habitats!

The elephants were warmed up handily enough in the end by two cases of vodka mixed with warm water, and then were kept in a heated garage at a local college to recover. According to the BBC, Russian officials say they were “roaring like they were in the jungle. Perhaps, they were happy!”.

Should I give this a go next time I'm stuck outside?

Well, the warm water would certainly help, but alcohol doesn't offer any protection from the cold. It can “warm the blood” as they say, but it actually lowers your core body temperature by moving blood back closer to the skin rather than keeping it flowing and making everything tick over nicely.

You'll certainly feel warmer initially, but we still recommend a nice cup of tea and some warm soup if you've been stuck out in the cold. And since you're putting the kettle on, we'll have a cup while you're at it.