Young elephants, drunk off fermented marula fruit, were caught stumbling over their siblings as they were too inebriated to stay upright.
Ross Couper, a field guide at Singita Kruger National Park in South Africa, witnessed the elephants playing around.
‘We watched in awe because the youngsters definitely seemed to display signs of being rather tipsy,’ he said.
Marula fruit is alleged to have an intoxicating effect once it has fallen and ripened on the ground.
There are other theories that the elephants’ behaviour is due to eating beetle pupae that resides in marula trees.
Less friendly instances have been recorded of drunken elephants damaging homes and crops after consuming alcoholic liquids or fruits.
The small village of Dumurkota in Eastern India experienced such destructive behaviour in 2012, when a gang of elephants drank more than 500 litres of home brewed mahua alcohol and knocked down three houses and ruined large quantities of crops whilst looking for more hooch.