July 7, 2015 Tuesday

Animals drink alcohol - level 3

Many people enjoy a drink from time to time and humans have been fermenting alcohol for hundreds of years. But it turns out some animals enjoy a tipple, too. A team of international researchers has found that chimpanzees drink alcohol using leafy vessels.

Scientists have long suspected that some monkeys like to get drunk, but this 17-year-long study provides the first empirical evidence of repeated and long-term ethanol ingestion by apes in the wild. This footage shows one chimp using leaves like a sponge to collect fermented sap from a palm tree.

The authors of the study, published in the Royal Society Open Science Journal, observed the animals in various states of inebriation, including some falling asleep shortly after having a drink.

Good to know we're not alone!

Difficult words: ferment (to turn into alcohol), tipple (an alcoholic drink), vessel (a container for holding liquids), empirical (based on scientific testing), ethanol (alcohol), ingestion (the act of ingesting – taking food into your body), fermented (turned into alcohol), sap (fluid in a plant),inebriation (being drunk).