Wild chimpanzees consume the equivalent of 2 cocktails per day in the form of drunk fruit, research finds research

In the forests of Uganda and Côte d’Ivoire, chimpanzees Crush in figs and plums, delighting sweet, soft and just a little watered fruits. A new study shows that these daily snacks are quietly added to the equivalent of nearly two alcoholic drinks for humans.

A team of scientists from the University of California Berkeley and other institutions have tested chimpanzees with fruit in fact: figs in the canopy of Uganda and plum -shaped fruits on the forest floor in Côte d’Ivoire. The data collection was not easy – with little electricity beyond solar panels and constant humidity threatening the instruments, the researchers spent three seasons transporting equipment and calibrating test kits to measure alcohol in many different tropical fruits.

In the end, they found that in average, the fruit alcohol content was approximately 0.3% by weight. It is Kombucha level, but when the chimpanzees eat 10 pounds of fruit per day and weigh approximately 90 pounds, this increases approximately 14 grams of ethanol, equivalent to about two cocktails for a human.

But do not imagine the chimpanzees swinging drunk with trees. To get drunk, they should slip on the fruit until their belly skyroche, said the researchers. Instead, they are exposed to a regular low dose, a quiet buzz of the nature of nature.

The main author of the newspaper and the UC Berkeley Integrative Biology Professor, Robert Dudley, launched the “drunk monkey” hypothesis in 2000 for the first time, arguing that our alcohol attraction could come from habits of consumption of ancestral fruits. Dudley argued that it had the sense of primates would be attentive to alcohol, because their diet has been running for ripe fruit for a long time.

“”Once you start to eat, it acts like an aperitif, “he said.” The pleasure of the association with drinking alcohol increases food rates. “”

Other animals also continue the same buzz.

“Open a bottle of beer outside and a fruit fly appears almost instantly,” said Dudley.

The spider monkeys in Panama, the slow loises in Malaysia and even the elephants have been documented in consumption of fruit or nectar naturally fermented.

What makes this study different is that it provides the first direct chemical measures of ethanol in the fruits that wild chimpanzees eat regularly, then connects these figures to daily contribution.

The open question is whether chimpanzees really select fruit for its alcohol content or simply hunt sugar and calories. Anyway, Dudley says that history connects us to us.

“We have inherited the taste of alcohol,” said Dudley. “Even if our diets have diversified … This bias to consume quickly when this molecule is present could always be a powerful force.”