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Fact or Fiction?: Animals Like to Get Drunk [Fact or Fiction]
Monday, July 28, 2008 - 03:00 PM - 5 months, 2 weeks ago - Presse spécialisée - Scientific American
Stories abound about animals who have taken a nip--or 10. In 2004, Reuters reported that a black bear had passed out at the Baker Lake Resort in Washington State after binging on beer. Last October the Associated Press recounted a tale of six Indian elephants stumbling around and uprooting a utility pole, electrocuting themselves, after guzzling a homemade rice brew in the northeastern state of Meghalaya. Even Charles Darwin noted in The Descent of Man that monkeys have a “strong taste” for “spirituous liquors” and beer.Still, there is scant scientific evidence proving that animals go on benders with the naturally occurring alcohol in fermenting fruit. Quite the contrary: the few studies done seemed to indicate they had either no interest or a distinct aversion to it. But new research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that at least a few creatures in the wilds of the Malaysian rainforest like to drink the hard stuff. [More]
