Do Deer do Fung?

[David Humphries]

Stumbled upon this fine rack of Laetiporus today on an old lump of Oak, in our deer pen.

 

 

Thought that hit me straight away was..........why haven't the deer eaten this culinary delight?

 

Captive & well fed they may be, but I would of guessed that any great tasting natural fayre, would be game.

 

Read that the Sami emulate their Viking forefathers, by feeding the Fly agaric to their reindeer & then drink it's urine to extract the hulicigenic qualities.

 

Surely Deer do do Fung, don't dey?

 

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[Ben Ballard]

nice find we have lots of deer in our woods but never seem to eat the fungi,but think they might be eatting truffels as i havent found any.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I would have thought deer would eat fungi, maybe not the brightly coloured ones for obvious reasons, but didnt david oakman post a grifola that the sheep/deer had gotten too?

[gibbon]

People used to drink the pee from Reindeers after they had eated Fly agaric. The Deer absorbed the toxins but the hallucinogens were passed on in the pee. Thats one theory behind the Santa Claus story

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

People used to drink the pee from Reindeers after they had eated Fly agaric. The Deer absorbed the toxins but the hallucinogens were passed on in the pee. Thats one theory behind the Santa Claus story

 

I heard that it was thier women they fed the agaric to, and drank thier pee!

 

iether way, shows the vikings where a sharing caring bunch dint it!

[Paul Smith]

Never seen a deer eat any fungi although I am sure they may. Found lots of things in deer stomachs from used shot gun shells to huge amounts of bailing twine. No help really!

[rotax81]

damn! i cant get away from them pesky deer.

 

deer like eating suzuki's but its meal came at her at 90mph, unfortunately i was the 'pilot' ..... them thing are heavy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the paramedic report said it was a roe deer, how much do them things weigh?

[Paul Smith]

That Roe is a Fallow doe and probably weighed about 70Lb live.

 

Hope your alright!

[rotax81]

70lbs, no wonder me and the bike went straight over it

 

im ok now, it happened 9 weeks ago and i got away with concussion (helmet smashed), 2 broken ribs and 3 broken fingers.

i had the full kit on as in my avatar so i was lucky really. the deer went on to hit a mercedes coming the other way so the place was a right mess.

it was a mates bike i was testing, he was behind me on mine and i was only covered 3rd party so i had to give him one of my other bikes, at least it wasnt mine that got destroyed

[Fungus]

I heard that it was thier women they fed the agaric to, and drank thier pee!

 

Neither of the assumptions on people and/or (rein)deer drinking muscimol rich pee is correct.

On one of my visits to the north of Sweden, an old Sami man told me, that in the old days they consumed Fly Agarics as part of religious rituals and ceremonies performed and guided by shamans. While being under the influence of the entheogens (and alcohol), they fed Amanita muscaria to their reindeer to have a good laugh and out of curiosity to see the effects on reindeer, and they also "guided" them to the muscimol rich urine the Sami and their reindeer produced afterwards. The Sami stopped this practice, but the reindeer turned out to be hooked and kept and still are searching for Fly Agarics and their pee detected by smell, because (rein)deer have no or hardly any colour sight, so the "alarming" bright colours of mushrooms represent no warning signs to them.

The horsemen among the Siberian cossacks prepared for war by eating fresh or dried Fly Agarics, which made them more resistent to pain and suppressed feelings of anxiety and when there was not enough "fruit" to be handed out, the foot soldiers drank the muscimol rich urine of the horsemen.

In the Swedish-Danish war at the beginning of the 19th century, the Swedish soldiers even were supplied with dried Amanita muscaria by their own gouvernment .

Edited May 13, 2011 by Fungus