Monkeying around: Wild chimps caught on camera sharing boozy fruit
Wild chimpanzees in West Africa were caught on video for the very first time sharing fermented African breadfruit that contained ethanol.
Researchers from the University of Exeter in England set up cameras at Cantanhez National Park in Guinea-Bissau.
The primates may have been using the alcohol like humans do, the team said in their report published in the science journal Current Biology.
'For humans, we know that drinking alcohol leads to a release of dopamine and endorphins, and resulting feelings of happiness and relaxation,' ecologist Anna Bowland, lead author of the study, said in a report from the university.
A research team from the University of Exeter set up the cameras, which caught the chimps sharing the alcoholic fruit.
Anna Bowland / Cantanhez Chimpanzee Project / University of Exeter
'We also know that sharing alcohol – including through traditions such as feasting – helps to form and strengthen social bonds.'
The creatures were filmed 10 times indulging in the boozy fruit, which contained 0.61% ABV [alcohol by volume], which is relatively low — so researchers concluded the chimps were unlikely to actually get drunk.
The group is using the discovery to do further research into the animals' drinking habits and whether or not they are rooted in early evolutionary history.
The creatures were filmed a total of 10 times indulging in the boozy fruit.
Anna Bowland / Cantanhez Chimpanzee Project / University of Exeter
'Chimps don't share food all the time, so this behavior with fermented fruit might be important,' Dr. Kimberley Hockings, a researcher at the University of Exeter, said in the report.
'We need to find out more about whether they deliberately seek out ethanolic fruits and how they metabolize it, but this behavior could be the early evolutionary stages of feasting.'
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