14 DAY TRIAL // Having spent about 17 years closely observing and documenting their behavior, wildlife researchers discovered that, just like us humans, chimpanzees living in the Republic of Guinea in West Africa enjoy the occasional booze fest, with palm wine being their drink of choice.
The specialists behind this investigation into the drinking habits of wild chimpanzees detail their findings in a report published earlier this week in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
The chimps need help from humans getting drunk
True, chimps are known to master the art of using tools, and studies carried out over the years have even shown that they are well capable of understanding and using sign language.
Still, since they haven't yet figured out how to brew the perfect forest-made cocktail, it looks like they need help from humans when it comes to finding booze.
Researchers explain that, in the Republic of Guinea, locals are in the habit of harvesting so-called palm wine from trees. What they do is tap the trees and collect the sap in containers.
As it turns out, chimpanzees living in this corner of the world often climb the palm trees tapped by humans and consume the naturally fermented sap themselves.
To harvest the fermented sap, they crush leaves and turn them into sponges of sorts. They then dip them into the liquid and suck on them. This booze that they consume contains an average 3.1% alcohol.
“Chimpanzees at Bossou [town in Guinea] ingest this alcoholic beverage, often in large quantities, despite an average presence of ethanol of 3.1% alcohol by volume (ABV) and up to 6.9% ABV.”
Like humans, African apes are known to possess a genetic mutation allowing them to metabolize ethanol, i.e. drinking alcohol. Still, voluntary ethanol consumption was thought to be unique to humans.
The palm wine makes the chimps behave oddly
Writing in the journal Royal Society Open Science, specialists explain that, understandably, the palm wine that they seem to love and adore makes chimps in the Republic of Guinea behave rather oddly. Plainly put, the palm wine gets the apes drunk.
Thus, it appears that chimps that consume palm wine either fall asleep almost immediately or grow restless and start throwing fits. Researchers are still trying to determine whether they also get hangovers.
