Posted on 04/04/2022 12:58:50 PM PDT by Red Badger
Research into the way humans came to enjoy alcohol in the manner that we do is an interesting area of evolutionary science, with some suggesting its roots can be traced back millions of years. One school of thought is that apes and monkeys were lured toward fermenting fruit due to its high nutritional value, and new analysis of urine samples of these so-called "drunken monkeys" offers first-of-a-kind evidence that they actually metabolize the ethanol within it.
The discovery stems from the long-running work of biologist Robert Dudley, who has been pondering the relationship between humans and alcohol for more than two decades. In his 2014 book titled The Drunken Monkey: Why We Drink and Abuse Alcohol, Dudley puts together an argument that humans inherited their penchant for alcohol from primates, pointing to research showing some fermented fruit they eat has naturally high alcohol content, at times as high as seven percent.
What was missing was data demonstrating that monkeys or apes prioritized these fruits over others, and that they actually metabolized the alcohol inside it. Now Dudley and fellow biology researchers at the University of California Berkeley and California State University have delved deeper into the "drunken monkey" hypothesis, turning to black-handed spider monkeys in Panama for answers.
For the first time, we have been able to show, without a shadow of a doubt, that wild primates, with no human interference, consume fruit-containing ethanol The scientists collected fermented fruit eaten and discarded by these monkeys and found it typically carried an alcohol concentration of between 1 and 2 percent. They took things a step further and collected urine samples from the wild monkeys which revealed the presence of metabolites from digested alcohol, demonstrating that they were actually using it for energy.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
I wouldn't want that job.
Birds go for fermented fruit all the time. They have a high alcohol tolerance, but do get drunk sometimes.
How do you get a wild monkey to pee in a cup?..............
Yep. I’ve seen the birds flopping around under the choke cherry bushes a few times. Lol.
“they were actually using it…“
Actually.
How much of this “research” was hands on? Tax money goes to get monkeys drunk? They could have given me a couple mill and I’d have told them why humans drink. Why? Because they like to.
Meh. A good ‘hunch punch’ consists of Hi-C, Graves grain alcohol, cherries, Mandarin orange slices. grapes, and pineapple tidbits, all fermented together for about 24 hours. The MOAB of party punches.
Only thing funner than a turd flinging monkey is a drunken turd flinging monkey
That’s probably what got them swingin’.
Photos from frat parties proved that finding years ago.
Yellow jackets get very aggression in the fall when fermented fruit is on the ground.
aggressive
Animals do love a tot. and do get hung over.
In “Animals are Beautiful People” a movie by Jamie Uys, a gifted South African film maker are scenes of the animals’ annual binge on fermented Marulla berries.
YouTube clip of drinking / hangover sequences here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MxNLg3rCdw
Hysterically funny.
I wonder if there’s more or better sugar in it for them.
They took things a step further and collected urine samples from the wild monkeys
Now there is a job Kamala Harris could get a grip on!
The Army does it all the time.
Yeah, don’t give the dog beer. At first they hate the smell and pull away but if they drink it, they’ll hear that low psst of the bottle cap opening a mile away and come running.
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