‘High’ wallabies accused of making crop circles after eating poppies in Tasmania

Poppy growners in the Australian state of Tasmania have long wondered about a strange phenomenon. The crop circles that have been known to, well, crop up in poppy fields have even inspired legends, the Mercury of Hobart, Tasmania, reports. Like crop circles elsewhere in the world, the poppy circles were mysterious, but no answers were forthcoming.

Mystery solved … maybe.

Tasmania supplies about half of the world’s legally-produced opium, which is made from poppies and used to make painkillers like morphine. But, of course, it’s important to safeguard the plant, which is used not only in legal painkillers, but also to produce heroin.

Security for the poppy plants was the subject of discussion at a recent parliamentary hearing, which took an unexpected turn when Lara Giddings, attorney general of Tasmania, spoke of a strange discovery.

“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,” Giddings told those assembled. “Then they crash. We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high.”

/little dudes!