By Canadian Press

Study on early humans sheds new light on old stories about animals and alcohol

Apr 28, 2020 | 12:18 PM

CALGARY — Research is shedding new light on old stories about the relationship between animals and alcohol. 

University of Calgary anthropologist Mareike Janiak started by asking how early humans adapted to new food sources when they moved from living in trees to on the ground.

She finished by concluding that, yes, animals may be getting drunk on fermented fruit.

Humans have a gene that allows them to process alcohol more quickly than almost any other animal.

When Janiak looked for other animals with that gene, she found it most common in those that eat a lot of fruit or nectar.

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Meat-eaters or leaf-browsers tend to lack the gene.

Scientists have previously suggested there isn’t enough alcohol in naturally fermented fruit to have any effect — despite anecdotes involving animals from elephants to waxwings.

Janiak suggests animals without that gene digest alcohol so slowly that, for them, it doesn’t take much.  

The Canadian Press