Thanks Red Badger. Cue the Rolling Stones...
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 ...
Scientists can be really stupid sometimes.
Kinda like drunken monkeys..........................
I had a dog once that would sneak up and take your beer if you didn’t watch out................
Never seen a Fat wild Monkey...................
Thanks Red Badger. Cue the Rolling Stones...
My dog is an IPA Man.
Of course. Given the difficulty of foraging for food, the ability to extend the time from ripening that fruit can be consumed by eating fermented fruit would pose a survival advantage.
Okay, I found evidence that alcohol has an effect on non humans, black bears in this case. The Black bear even had a preferred brand, and there is evidence he could tell beers apart by smell or can type. Smarter than the average bear.
https://www.wideopenspaces.com/black-bear-goes-bender-drinks-much-beer-passes-lawn/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
