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full screen Chimpanzees are one of the species that have been found to drink alcohol regularly. Photo: David J. Phillip/AP
The male fruit fly takes to the bottle when he gets the nob.
The silktail often gets into trouble when it flies drunk.
– Ethanol is abundant in the natural world, says Anna Bowland, at the University of Exeter, who has researched the alcohol habits of animals.
In a large study at the University of Exeter, England, it has been shown that alcohol consumption occurs in almost all known ecosystems. The researchers have gone through a large number of research reports on animals that get drunk.
– We are moving away from this anthropocentric view that alcohol is only used by humans, to that ethanol is abundant in the natural world, says Anna Bowland at the University of Exeter to The Guardian.
For 10,000 years, man has made alcohol a large part of his culture, but alcohol is considered to have occurred naturally on earth for 100 million years.
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helskärm2011 became a moose in the light after it munched on fruit in a garden in Kungsbacka. Photo: Gustav Johansson
Drunk moose
In that time, evolution has also taught the animal world that alcohol can add a golden edge to existence, as well as cause a lot of misery.
In one documentary from 1974 elephants, ostriches and baboons were seen getting drunk on fermented marula fruit, while Aftonbladet wrote about a drunken moose stuck in an apple tree in 2011.
Now there is also research that proves that it is a widespread behavior in the animals.
A study between 1995 and 2012 in Guinea showed how chimpanzees regularly, and under ‘orderly forms’, drank large quantities of fermented palm sap which they stole from the harvests of the local villages.
There was never a fight, and when the sun went down they swung off to sleep off their intoxication.
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fullscreen For the silktail bird, alcohol consumption does not seem to be of any benefit. Photo: Rolf Petterson
More sex partners
The bird species the tuja silktail instead chose a bad human habit. Researchers discovered that many of the birds flew to their deaths after feasting on fermented fruit.
– Intoxication is not beneficial in an environment where you are fighting to survive, says Bowland.
When the researchers reviewed the fruit fly alcohol use, it was found that males who were defeated in the mating game consoled themselves with fermented nectar. Drunk female flies, on the other hand, had sex with more partners than the sober females. The females also became less careful about which partners they chose.
However, the researchers state that they do not yet know if the animals get drunk on purpose, or if it is an unexpected side effect.
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fullscreen Those who have pets at home may need to review the lock on their liquor cabinet in the future. Photo: Aftonbladet