RESEARCHERS HAVE found that tree shrews that thrive on fermented nectar suck up amounts that would inebriate a human but seem to have no ill-effects themselves.
The findings, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may shed light on how animals evolved a taste for alcohol as well as helping to understand why so many humans abuse it.
“We discovered that seven mammalian species in a West Malaysian rainforest consume alcoholic nectar daily from flower buds of the Bertam palm, which they pollinate,” Frank Wiens of Bayreuth University in Germany and colleagues wrote.
“The 3.8 percent maximum alcohol concentration that we recorded is among the highest ever reported in a natural food,” they say.
A further study is planned to find out how the shrews cope with constant alcohol intake.
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