A recent news release about researchers recycling an ancient word, namely scrumping, drew my attention to the issue of apes and other animals seeking out fermenting fruit that likely contain alcohol. Historically, alcohol appreciation in animals has been dismissed as accidental or anecdotal, but recent investigations seem to suggest there are good reasons for animals to seek fermenting fruit, and thus consumption of some amounts of alcohol may be more widespread than previously thought. It turns out in fact that we share our remarkable ability to digest alcohol with the African great apes, so it is older than our species.
My feature is out now:
Apes appreciate alcohol
Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 17, 8 September 2025, Pages R819-R821
Restricted access to full text and PDF download
(contact me if you would like a PDF)
Update 18.9.2025: The alcohol uptake of chimps has now been quantified reports the Guardian based on a paper in Science Advances.
See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2025.
The thread for 2024 is here .
Fruit flies of the Drosophila genus are well adapted to the presence of ethanol in decaying fruit and can even tolerate a limited amount of methanol. (Photo: Martin Cooper/Flickr (CC BY 2.0).)
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