{"id":2178589,"date":"2024-11-14T12:00:59","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T11:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2178589"},"modified":"2024-11-09T09:10:45","modified_gmt":"2024-11-09T08:10:45","slug":"animals-consume-alcohol-more-often-than-previously-known-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/animals-consume-alcohol-more-often-than-previously-known-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Animals consume alcohol more often than previously known: Study"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s new:<\/h2>\n<p>Humans know a thing or two about drinking alcohol, but accounts of animals turning to booze have often been discounted as accidental, unnatural or rare. Researchers now argue in a new study that animals drinking alcohol, or more specifically ethanol, might be more commonplace in the natural world than previously thought.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re moving away from this anthropocentric view that ethanol is just something that humans use,\u201d study co-author Kimberley Hockings from the University of Exeter, U.K., said in a statement.<\/p>\n<h2>What the study says:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Considering various anecdotes of animals getting \u201cdrunk\u201d on alcohol, scientists reviewed existing scientific literature to find out how widespread ethanol is in the natural world and the kinds of animals that consume it.<\/li>\n<li>In nature, plants don\u2019t produce ethanol directly. Instead, it\u2019s made primarily by the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiaeas it ferments sugars. Evidence suggests that yeast began making ethanol 100 million years ago, when flowering plants first started producing sugar-rich fruits. Today, ethanol-laden fruits can be detected in nearly every terrestrial ecosystem, the researchers say. Concentrations of ethanol in naturally fermented fruits can be as low as 1-2% alcohol by volume (ABV), and as high as 10.2% ABV in some overripe palm fruits.<\/li>\n<li>There\u2019s also growing evidence that many types of animals consume alcohol in nature, from tiny flies, wasps and bees to monkeys, chimpanzees and elephants, the researchers found. Moreover, their review showed that animals had the genes to metabolize ethanol long before yeasts even began producing it. Mammals and birds that consume fruit and nectar now seem to have genes better adapted for processing ethanol than those that consume leaf- or meat-based diets.<\/li>\n<li>The researchers couldn\u2019t tease out if animals consume ethanol to get drunk. However, they speculate, based on existing research, that ethanol could be beneficial in a number of ways, including as a source of calories and for its medicinal properties. For instance, fruit fly larvae consume more ethanol when they\u2019re parasitized by wasps, suggesting they may be self-medicating. Fruit flies have also been reported to intentionally lay their eggs in substances containing ethanol to protect them from parasites.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What this means:<\/h2>\n<p>The new review finds that \u201cethanol is neither rare nor simply avoided\u201d in nature.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis leads us to reconsider ethanol\u2019s ecological role and evolutionary impact in nature,\u201d the authors write.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers add that to untangle the role that ethanol plays in the natural world, future research should investigate how its consumption affects the cognition, behavior and physiology of animals.<\/p>\n<p><i>This <a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/short-article\/2024\/11\/animals-consume-alcohol-more-often-than-previously-known-study\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">article<\/a> by Shreya Dasgupta was first published by Mongabay.com on 8 November 2024. Lead image of a spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) feeding on the fruits of Spondias mombin courtesy of Nicholas Chapoy.<\/i><\/p>\n<h2>What you can do<\/h2>\n<p>Help to save wildlife by donating as little as $1 \u2013 It only takes a minute.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 1px solid white;\" \/>\n<div><script src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/install-popup-button.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\" defer><\/script><a class=\"dbox-donation-button\" style=\"background: #ededed; color: #333; text-decoration: none; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; display: inline-block; font-size: 13px; padding: 8px 10px 8px 10px; -webkit-border-radius: 2px; -moz-border-radius: 2px; border-radius: 4px; box-shadow: 0 1px 0 0 #a5a5a5;\" href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/focusing-on-wildlife-needs-your-support?amount=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">DONATE NOW<\/a><\/div>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 1px solid white;\" \/>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" fifu-lazy=\"1\" fifu-data-sizes=\"auto\" fifu-data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=75&amp;resize=75&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=100&amp;resize=100&amp;ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=150&amp;resize=150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=240&amp;resize=240&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=320&amp;resize=320&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=500&amp;resize=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=640&amp;resize=640&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=800&amp;resize=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=1024&amp;resize=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=1280&amp;resize=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=1600&amp;resize=1600&amp;ssl=1 1600w\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-161632\" fifu-data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"28\" title=\"\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both;\"><\/div>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 1px solid white;\" \/>\n<div><em>Focusing on Wildlife supports <a href=\"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wildlife-charities-supported-by-focusing-on-wildlife\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">approved wildlife conservation organizations,<\/a> which spend at least 80 percent of the money they raise on actual fieldwork, rather than administration and fundraising.<\/em><i><\/i><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What\u2019s new: Humans know a thing or two about drinking alcohol, but accounts of animals turning to booze have often been discounted as accidental, unnatural or rare. Researchers now argue in a new study that animals drinking alcohol, or more specifically ethanol, might be more commonplace in the natural world than previously thought. \u201cWe\u2019re moving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1178,"featured_media":2203323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/11\/08043044\/Low-Res_A-spider-monkey-feedings-on-fruits-of-spondia-mombin-CREDIT-Nicholas-Chapoy-768x512-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Animals consume alcohol more often than previously known: Study","footnotes":""},"categories":[6985,5],"tags":[12260,11890,2414,588,10042,4306,4365,5571],"class_list":["post-2178589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wildlife","tag-alcohol","tag-chimpanzees","tag-elephants","tag-mammals","tag-mongabay","tag-mongabay-com","tag-monkeys","tag-shreya-dasgupta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2178589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2203323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2178589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2178589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2178589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}