Some animals simply gain a few additional calories by consuming naturally occurring alcohol, whereas others can use it to protect themselves from parasites. Some other species are less able to tolerate it but may encounter and ingest it anyway.
Chimpanzees and other wildlife consume alcohol - Media Credit:
Adobe Stock
A new scientific analysis suggests that many animals regularly consume ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, via the fermented fruits, sap, and nectar found within almost all ecosystems.
The new study’s authors reviewed a selection of already published
research papers on animals and their interactions with ethanol for
their analysis, which they say “challenges the current belief” that
humans are the only vertebrate that regularly consumes alcohol.
“The Evolutionary Ecology Of Ethanol” was published in Trends in
Ecology & Evolution earlier this week. It details how widespread
alcohol consumption is in the natural world and explores how
imbibing it serves different purposes for different species.
For example, some animals simply gain a few additional calories by
consuming naturally occurring alcohol, whereas others can use it to
protect themselves from parasites. Some other species are less able
to tolerate it but may encounter and ingest it anyway.
Low-level ethanol ingestion is also linked with certain
medicinal
properties, while its cognitive influence likely includes the same
potential
risks and
benefits for primates as for humans.
Ethanol consumption is ‘ecologically relevant,’ say authors
According to the analysis, sugar-rich fleshy fruits like mangos,
plums, and apples have supported fermentation and natural ethanol
production since the Cretaceous period. As a result, the new study’s
authors believe alcohol consumption may be “just as ancient.”
Adobe Stock In 2011, a moose became inebriated and stuck in a
tree after consuming fermented apples. After being freed, he slept
off the alcohol and returned to the forest
Beetles, honey bees, wasps, and the vinegar fly – the latter of
which processes ethanol extremely efficiently – have all been
documented consuming alcohol. There are also many anecdotal accounts
of mammals eating fermented, alcoholic fruit, including elephants,
baboons, and one
notable case of a drunk, tree-climbing moose.
The analysis details how wild chimpanzees “repeatedly” ingest
fermented palm, while spider monkeys feed on fermented yellow mombin
fruits. One of the difficulties of assessing ethanol consumption in
the wild is measuring alcohol by volume (ABV) and tolerance across
species.
For example, pen-tailed treeshrews showed no signs of intoxication
despite “prodigious ethanol consumption” via wild bertam palm
nectar. The authors acknowledge that “it is unclear how an
inebriated treeshrew would behave,” but suggest that the animals
likely have an “enhanced ethanol metabolism” with a to-be-determined
evolutionary history.
“We conclude that ethanol is ecologically relevant and that it has
shaped the evolution of many species and structured symbiotic
relationships among organisms, including plants, yeast, bacteria,
insects, and mammals,” write the study’s authors.