WASHINGTON, Sept 23 \u2014 Chimpanzees consume the equivalent of at least one alcoholic drink per day as they eat ripe, fermenting fruit, says a study last week that addresses one possible reason why humans are drawn to booze.<\/p>\n
The study, carried out in the wilds of Africa where the animals live, supports the theory that people may have inherited from primates a taste for alcohol and ability to metabolise it even though it is toxic for us.<\/p>\n
The researchers collected fruits that chimps eat and measured their ethanol content, which is produced as sugar ferments. They concluded that these evolutionary cousins of ours consume alcohol on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
And not just a little. Through the large amount of fruit that chimps eat, the researchers reckon the animals take in about 14 grams (half an ounce) of alcohol per day.<\/p>\n
Correcting for body size, it is like the chimps are drinking a pint of beer per day, Aleksey Maro, lead author of the study published in the journal Science Advances, told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not an insubstantial amount of alcohol, but very diluted and more associated with food,\u201d said the PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley.<\/p>\n
The \u2018drunken monkey\u2019 theory<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen for the first time that, indeed, our closest living relatives are consuming physiologically relevant doses of alcohol routinely daily,\u201d Maro said.<\/p>\n
This is in line with the \u201cdrunken monkey theory\u201d espoused more than a decade ago by US biologist Robert Dudley, who co-authored the new study.<\/p>\n
As the theory goes, humans liking alcohol and being able to metabolise it stems from our primate ancestors ingesting it daily through the fruit they eat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe drunken monkey hypothesis is becoming more and more a reality,\u201d said Maro. \u201cIts name is unfortunate. A better name would be the evolutionary hangover.\u201d<\/p>\n
The theory was initially met with scepticism among experts. But it has gained traction in recent years as studies showed that some primates eat fermented fruit and, given a choice of nectars with varying amounts of alcohol, they prefer the booziest one.<\/p>\n
Nathaniel Dominy, a professor of anthropology and evolutionary biology at Dartmouth College who did not take part in this study, welcomed it enthusiastically.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe paper is a tour de force,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n
Dominy also said it \u201cputs to rest the debate over the prevalence of ethanol in tropical fruits.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he added that the study raises new questions on the biological and behavioural consequences of chronic low-level ethanol exposure for nonhuman primates.<\/p>\n
Another unanswered question is whether chimps actively search out boozy fruit or just eat it when they find it. The researchers in this study said they did not know.<\/p>\n
The issue of chimps ingesting alcohol will remain under study to learn more about the origins of human alcohol consumption and assess its risks and possible benefits, according to Maro.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can learn about ourselves through the chimpanzees,\u201d he said. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n
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