Chimpanzees Like Drinking 'Alcohol' Too
A 17-year study found chimpanzees will seek out and drink the alcohol in fermenting tree sap, but they don’t appear to get drunk.
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Transcript:
Researchers have found some chimpanzees in
West Africa are habitual drinkers.
The 17-year study marks the first observations of repeated and habitual alcohol consumption by any wild ape.
Researchers observed chimpanzees using wadded-up leaves as sponges to drink raffia palm sap, which turns into an alcohol when it ferments. The sap is about 3 percent alcohol by volume, roughly equivalent to a really light beer. (
Video via
The Royal Society)
One researcher told the
BBC "Some individuals were estimated to have consumed about 85ml of alcohol" per visit, or an amount “[approximately equal to a bottle of wine]".
And while the researchers observed altered behavior in some chimpanzees after drinking, they say it’s not clear if they got drunk in the traditional human sense.
Importantly, they say there’s no concrete evidence of this behavior in the wild. Chimps need humans to start the process.
The researchers wrote “
Raffia palm sap drinking is opportunistic, relying on a person having installed the specialized equipment to drain the sap from a mature palm.”
Still, the study supports what’s known as the “drunken monkey” hypothesis: that some
10 million years ago, a common ancestor to humans and other primates evolved the ability to metabolize alcohol more effectively than other animals.
Not like moose. There’s evidence moose in
Norway might sometimes get drunk after eating piles of fermenting fruit, which could explain the shoe shopping. (Video via
National Geographic)
Lorikeets are lightweights, too. (Video via National Geographic)
But not certain tree shrews. One study found they can drink enough to get a human tipsy, but they don’t appear to feel it. (Video via Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences)
Of course, even primates have their limits
. In the Caribbean, some vervet monkeys who steal human alcohol show the apparent universal signs of intoxication. (Video via BBC)
Maybe they should take notes on the chimpanzees’ moderation.
The new findings have been published in
Royal Society Open Science.
Sources:
Getty Images http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-elderly-chimpanzee-sits-on-a-tree-in-its-enclosure-at-news-photo/71437991
Royal Society Publishing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6y7l1g3Ahg
BBC http://www
.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33050939
The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/
2015/06/10/science/for-some-chimpanzees-happy-hour-starts-with-stealing
.html?_r=0
Royal Society Publishing http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/6/150150
Scientific American http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/origins-of-human-alcohol-consumption-revealed/
Science http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/12/ability-consume-alcohol-may-have-shaped-primate-evolution
National Geographic http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/wild/stranger-than-nature/videos/drunken-moose/
National Geographic http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/videos/drunken-parrots-gone-wild/
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences http://www.pnas.org/content/105/30/10426.abstract
BBC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSm7BcQHWXk
Image via: Getty Images / Ian Waldie
http://www.gettyimages.com