DRUNKEN SHREW: The tiny pen-tailed tree shrew of Malaysia has as many as nine alcoholic beverages per night, imbibing fermented nectar from the bertam palm.
Image: © ANNETTE ZITZMANN
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Stories abound about animals who have taken a nip—or 10. In 2004, Reuters reported that a black bear had passed out at the Baker Lake Resort in Washington State after binging on beer. Last October the Associated Press recounted a tale of six Indian elephants stumbling around and uprooting a utility pole, electrocuting themselves, after guzzling a homemade rice brew in the northeastern state of Meghalaya. Even Charles Darwin noted in The Descent of Man that monkeys have a “strong taste” for “spirituous liquors” and beer.
Still, there is scant scientific evidence proving that animals go on benders with the naturally occurring alcohol in fermenting fruit. Quite the contrary: the few studies done seemed to indicate they had either no interest or a distinct aversion to it. But new research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that at least a few creatures in the wilds of the Malaysian rainforest like to drink the hard stuff.
In the mid 1990s, Frank Wiens and Annette Ziztmann, animal physiologists at Germany’s University of Bayreuth, observed that tiny pentailed treeshrews frequent the bertam palm, returning regularly to nip the nectar. Wiens also noticed a strange yeasty aroma wafting from the plant, and what appeared to be foam like the head on a mug of beer.
“This indicated [to me] that there might be alcohol involved," Wiens recalls. He tested the nectar and, lo and behold, discovered that it was 3.8 percent alcohol, which is similar to that of some beers. Seems the bertam palm flower bud harbors a previously unknown species of yeast, which acts as a brewery, fermenting the nectar.
This botanic bartender knows how to please its customers: seven species of mammals in that west Malaysian rainforest, including the pentailed treeshrew and the slow loris, quaff alcohol nightly, sometimes going back for seconds and thirds in a single evening. In human terms, according to Wiens’ calculations, these diminutive creatures are regularly consuming the equivalent of about nine alcoholic beverages a night. Wiens says that it's a two-ways street: the animals get to enjoy a brew—or two or three—but they also act as the plant's pollinators.
Despite high alcohol levels, however, the furry little nippers didn’t get fuzzy—they displayed no overt signs of drunken behavior; there was no stumbling, swaying, passing out. Wiens speculates that the alcoholic nectar may still have some neurological effect in enticing them back for seconds, which, he says, makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. The animals get food, and the plant retains its pollinators.
Biologist Robert Dudley of the University of California Berkeley says this study is the first to demonstrate his theory that our attraction to alcohol evolved from a time when we roamed forests in search of energy-rich plants. A whiff of alcohol might have signaled that a fruit had reached peak calorie content. But like many adaptions that may once have been useful, he says, our evolutionary predilection for fermented fruit may lead to an unhealthy addiction to alcohol in today's world of plenty (just as we now just get fat instead of expending energy stored for use when food was scarce). And pentailed treeshrews are similar to the earliest pre-primates, a living model of extinct species from which shrews and primates, leading to humans, branched off.
“Humans have an affinity for ethanol (plant-derived alcohol), and captive primates are well known to like to drink anthropogenically sourced ethanol,” Dudley told Sciam.com. “Natural consumption of dietary ethanol deriving from fermenting fruits or nectar has never been studied previously, and this is a highly fruitful area for future investigation.”
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8 Comments
Add CommentI had seen this exact species of shrew in a wildlife documentary not too long ago, doing exactly that.. getting wasted for the sheer joy of it. Although, animal or not, I think it's important to stress that intoxicants should be taken in moderation. The last thing we need is an excess of drunken shrews stumbling around causing mischief.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSeveral years back the Northern Pacific RR derailed and dumped several gondolas of grain outside Glacier Park. They recovered the the cars and left the grain. The grain in great piles did not attract bears until in the ripeness of time it fermented and then the bears staged a bacchanal. In their stupor they'd stumble on the tracks to death kiss trains. Forest & Park Service demanded the RR rectify the mess. They did so by interning the grain in dirt. It didn't work. The ursine masses dug it up to resume their party. Ultimately Northern Pacific was obliged to bring in the front loaders to haul it away.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnecdotally I've had several pets of numerous species happy to indulge themselves. Freud's "Beyond the Pleasure Principal" seems to have broader application.
I seem to recall a movie called "Beautiful People" about African animals. Part of the movie involved the results of a fruit tree which dropped masses of overripe, fermenting fruit, where animals could finally get at it. Fantastic sequences of drunk animals, hilarious. Not far off what some of my friends have done at one time or another...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAn interesting study was done by Eugene Marais and can be read about in his book "The Soul of the Ape" where even addicted (caused by force feeding) animals shunned alcohol. It seems there are many possibilities from species to species. While we never got our dogs drunk, they enjoyed beer and would occasionally knock bottles over to get at the stuff. Unfortunately, that didn't endear them to many of our guests.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe animal is not getting wasted as some comments said, and secondly it seems like people just believe anything they read if it just says evolutionary in it without much thought. If you think about it, if this animal did get drunk from drinking this nectar imagine how his life would be, i dont think he would even last in the wild for long, so i would say that this mammal was always like this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSecondly, saying that, “Humans have an affinity for ethanol (plant-derived alcohol), and captive primates are well known to like to drink anthropogenically sourced ethanol,” means nothing really, cause according to what is it well known, people should know also that many people don't drink and don't even have the urge to drink, so how can it be said that we looked for such nectar in our evolutionary stages, this is also assuming that we did evolve from animals that run in the wild. Evolution does exist, for adaptation of living things, not for their dreams to become true. I don't believe in major changes in a living being, all the skeletons of stages that they have found could have been species that have been extinct and they just call it evolutionary stages, as well as false identification which is common, causes a lot of theories to collapse.
I remember those frames of "Beautiful people" clearly . Now, I am confused to know that it couldn't be authentic scenes of nature. Should we recommend "Best actor award" to those elephants?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy mother used to have a pear tree in her yard. She would harvest the ones she could reach, but the ones on the higher branches would remain. An occasional bird would fly into the upper branches happily singing away as it ate the overripe fruit. After a time, the singing would get a little more odd, and the bird could be seen struggling to fly. It would fall, recovering on lower branches, until it sobered up and flew away.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's difficult to say for sure, but my mother swore that some of the birds were repeat customers.
I am looking for information on studies involving animal behavior/drunkeness, animals' propensity for addictoion; whether it varies, if some species or individuals within species; i.e. groups of dogs, monkeys, etc. may become "alcoholic" while others within the group may not, should they all be exposed to alcohol and have the same opportunity available. My only animal research, (other than my own,which led me to joining a group which practices abstinence)was when I was living in an apt. hopelessly infested with cockroaches some years ago. My findings were thus: Cockroaches are unaffected by microwaves. There was a tribe living in the oven door, I took several and cast them in the MW and turned it on high power for several minutes. I could see them tarrying around inside, unaffected. I let them out & they scurried away.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI had a bag of Pinion Nuts in the cuppboard, which they completely avoided. (bug people take note: herein may lie a clue to groundbreaking roach-control research) I used to trap them on masking tape at night when they'd journey to the kitchen sink for water & food particles. Once, I had three robust ones facing each otheer, their feet glued to the tape floor. I was feeling benevolent, & decided I'd "kill them with kindness." I had a bottle of 100-proof (50% alcohol) sour-mash whiskey, and I used an eyedropper to envelop their heads in generous bubble-drops of whiskey. They almost immediately became anesthetized, and, I presume, drowned in the juice. I left the room, satisfied they were dead, or should succumb in a very short time. Ten minutes later I glanced at them as I was heading out the door. All three were dragging their long antennas through the last of thier alloted doses of sour mash, then running them through their mouths, (I assume this is how roaches drink, using their antennae like tongues) and using a little imagination, I could hear them yelling "Hey, Bartender! This is a true account of my experience with cockroaches/alcohol.