Member Article

Crop circles due to 'high as a kite' wallabies

Crop-circles are synonymous with UFOs and flying saucers, but a different, and even more spaced-out, reason is explaining some of the damage in Tasmania.

Wallabies that are “high as a kite” are eating opium poppy seeds and hoping around in circles producing problem crop damage, a state official said.

Tasmania’s Attorney-General Lara Giddings said: “We have a problem with the wallabies entering poppy fields, getting high as a kite and going around in circles.”

She added: “Then they crash. We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high.”

Tasmania supplies about 50% of the world’s raw material for morphine and opiate based drugs, and other animals, like sheep and deer, are known to “act weird” when they eat poppy straw.

Alkaloid field operations manager, Rick Rockliff, said: “There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .