Chimps regularly consume alcohol, study finds

Alexander Freund
A new study has observed that chimpanzees regularly eat fermented fruit together, suggesting that alcohol consumption is more deeply rooted in human evolution than previously thought.

https://static.dw.com/image/71014199_1004.webp

Chimpanzees regularly consume fermented fruit in the wild – ingesting significant amounts of alcohol in the process, according to a new studypublished by Science. Researchers led by Aleksey Maro from the University of California reported this month that each day the animals consume a dose equivalent to approximately one small bottle of beer for humans.

In Uganda's Kibale National Park and the Ivory Coast's Taï National Park, the researchers analyzed the 20 most popular fruit varieties, whose ripe pulp contains an average alcohol content of 0.3%. Since a chimpanzee consumes around 4.5 kilograms of these fruits each day, the amount adds up to just under 14 grams of alcohol. Measured against the animals' body weight of around 41 kilograms, this corresponds to the consumption of more than half a liter of beer in humans.

The research suggests that regular alcohol consumption is not solely a cultural phenomenon for humans in evolutionary biology, but could have deeper roots in the behavior of our closest relatives. These findings echo the results of another study published this spring, in which a team from the University of Exeter also observed chimpanzees consuming alcoholic fruits together in Cantanhez Forests National Park in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. The majority of the African breadfruit tree fruits examined had an alcohol content of up to 0.61%. However, it was unclear whether the low concentration of alcohol caused intoxication in the chimpanzees.

Using camera traps, the team recorded a total of 70 events in which chimpanzees almost always consumed alcoholic fruit together. Chimpanzees of both sexes and from different age groups participated in the party. "Our data provide the first evidence for ethanolic food sharing and feeding by wild nonhuman great apes, and supports the idea that the use of alcohol by humans is not 'recent' but rather rooted in our deep evolutionary history," the team wrote in the journal Current Biology in April.

https://www.dw.com/en/chimps-regularly-consume-alcohol-study-finds/a-74159059