In a stunning setback for UFOlogists, pseudo scientists, and the just plain gullible, it was revealed today that Australian crop circles are created by wallabies - drunk wallabies. Well, not drunk exactly, it seems the little kangaroo-like creatures enjoy getting into opium poppy fields and eating themselves silly. After they get stoked to the gills, they enjoy boinging around the place in circles. From the BBC: '"The one interesting bit that I found recently in one of my briefs on the poppy industry was that we have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," Lara Giddings told the hearing. "Then they crash," she added.'
Crop circles, large circles found in fields the world over, have long been the subject of speculation. Some think they are a sign of extraterrestrial visitations, others chalk it up to meteorological phenomena, while others think it all a big hoax. I don't think anybody had speculated on stoned wallabies. It certainly can't be chalked up to Ockham's razor, the idea that the simplest explanation is usually the right one, but it ain't Martians either - at least not in Australia.
Photo by PanBK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
