chimps get buzzed on fermented tree sap - display signs

There is a very famous drunken monkey hypothesis, assuming that the human love of alcohol comes from our ancestors.
The theory holds that these primates have an evolutionary advantage from being able to eat a large amount of fermented fruit and ethanol formed in the process.
A big problem with this hypothesis is that there is no evidence of drinking alcohol among relatives of contemporary mammals.
Green Monkey in St.
Kitts from tourists.
At least one captive chimpanzee had to do so after becoming addicted to nicotine and alcohol.
But that's it.
Our closest ape rarely eats fruit where it is fermented.
However, our DNA suggests that our desire for alcohol may have a long history.
Apparently the ability to metabolize ethanol in the common ancestor of chimpanzees, bon chimpanzees, gorillas and humans.
Now Kimberly Hawkins of the University of Oxford Brooks in the UK and his colleagues report the case of ethanol consumption in wild chimpanzees, the first time.
But these animals don't eat fermented fruit.
They stole the fermented palm juice from humans.
They invented a tool to help them do it.
In Bosu, Guinea, locals use plastic containers to collect juices dripping from the raffia palm trees and cover the containers with palm leaves to avoid contamination.
In the container, the juice is quickly fermented into drinks with an alcohol content equivalent to weak beer.
People usually drink this mixture in one day without any further processing.
These containers are not protected and it turns out that these leaves are not of any benefit to preventing curious chimpanzees.
The researchers actually used the leaves or leaves of nearby plants as a tool for absorbing drinks and found the chimpanzees.
This behavior is not very frequent, and not all chimpanzees have this behavior.
For 17 years, the team found 13 adult and immature chimpanzees, half of the total population, drinking 51 times in total.
But 14 of them are just a male chimpanzee.
In June 8, researchers found that some animals drank enough to show signs of drunkenness.
Even in combination with early genetic findings, this finding still does not prove the assumption of drunken monkeys.
But the researchers say it does show that it is worth continuing to look for more evidence to absorb apes.