You’re not an alcoholic compared to the tree shrew. These little guys drink alcohol two hours a night, every night, all year long.
Bohemian waxwing birds get so drunk they have to go to rehab.
It's not just humans that indulge during the holiday season. Bohemian waxwing birds, native to the northern parts of North America and Eurasia, love to feast on berries from rowan trees, which ferment when the weather gets cooler, making alcohol.
Most birds just get a little buzzed. But others don't know when to stop. Some are even "drunk flyers," which can unfortunately mean fatal crashes with buildings – according to National Geographic , two such collisions were recorded this year.
This fall, several birds became so intoxicated that they had to be admitted to the animal healthcare unit in Yukon, Canada to sober up. Those that weren't able to recover, however, had to go to...yes...rehab, at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve.
Paul Reeves/Paul Reeves Photography
Bats can handle their alcohol.
Just like birds, bats get drunk off fermented fruit. But unlike Bohemian waxwings, bats in Central and South America are able to handle their alcohol. According to a 2009 study in Belize published by PLOS One, the highest blood alcohol content (BAC) that was tested in the bats was 0.3%. To put this in perspective, it's illegal to drive in the United States with a BAC of more than .08%.
In the study, the bats were able to successfully fly through obstacle courses, using echolocation. But, this is only true for Central/South American bats. In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, Egyptian fruit bats had higher cases of collisions than their American counterparts.
Biologist Brock Fenton told National Geographic that the American bats' extremely high tolerance probably evolved as it allowed them to consume fruits that other animals weren't able to eat.
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Tree shrews drink "beer" every night, because of evolution.
The pen-tailed tree shrew hits the "bars" of the rainforest every night in their native Malaysia, according to a 2008 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their poison of choice? Fermented palm nectar, which has an alcohol strength similar to beer. They spend about two hours per night – every night – boozing it up. Remarkably, they don't get inebriated, despite their small stature.
Robert Dudley, physiologist at the University of California, Berkeley told National Geographic that there may be some "positive effects" to alcohol consumption, like protection against cardiovascular risk and more food intake due to the "munchies."
Although the shrews can metabolize alcohol much better than their human counterparts, they are theorized to be very similar to the common ancestor of all primates, including humans, which existed more than 55 million years ago, according to a 2005 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Keep in mind, humans only figured out how to brew beer about 9,000 years ago. But this study implies that we could have been boozing it up since the beginning of time. Dudley suggests that our ancestors may have inherited this desire to drink alcohol in order to keep our calories up.
So, beer saves lives. And possibly all of humanity.
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Vervet monkeys steal cocktails from humans.
Vervet monkeys in the Caribbean began their addiction to alcohol 300 years ago when they discovered fermented sugar cane during the height of the plantation era. They developed such a liking to ethanol, that 1 in 5 monkeys prefer drinking alcohol over water, according to a 1993 study published by Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior 46.
Much like humans, the study discovered that teenage monkeys consume much more alcohol than adults. Lead co-author Jorge Juarez tells the BBC that adults drink less in an effort to be more "alert" and "responsible."
About 5% of the population are alcoholics. Some monkeys even dare to steal beverages from innocent humans at beach bars.
Oleg Eliev / EyeEm/
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