"In ancestral forests, faint whiffs of fermentation would have been a useful signal of easy calories. A taste for ethanol, at low concentrations, would therefore have given these early primates an evolutionary advantage. If the hypothesis is true, this helps explain our own fondness for the stuff. During years where fermented fruit is abundant, the chimpanzees of Ngogo, in the north of the national park, spend more time travelling to distant areas of their home territories than usual. It is tempting to think that the booze is making them more adventurous. However, Maro believes it is more to do with the sugar providing a burst of energy...."
From "Wild chimpanzees 'would fail human sobriety tests'/Chimps love naturally fermented fruit — so much so, they register alcohol levels that would get a human banned from operating heavy machinery" (London Times).
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We just stayed at a place where the owner’s black lab has an obsession with plums. Someone took a plum out of a bowl and the dog appeared out of nowhere to beg. Apparently when the dog went to stay with grandma and got sick it was discovered the dog liked to eat the fruit off the ground in grandma’s orchards. The vet said it was either just rotten fruit or more likely the fermentation aspect of it…
Elephants like a little tipple now and then too. I don't see why there has to be a dietary explanation. A mild buzz in the afternoon is one of life great simple pleasures.
They probably have a higher tolerance then chimps but a tipsy elephant can be dangerous
Yes this is, as they used to say, settled science. We primates are an ethanol loving bunch, some more than others. It also metabolizes faster than sugars.
I've always enjoyed the story in the bible of how Noah was the inventor of alcohol, following the flood. It resonates with me that sages of old might've had some understanding of alcohol's relationship with PTSD.
My ancestors were not chimps! They were dirt poor Irish and some were illiterate. Many probably were drunks.
But now the Dems are telling us that pot is safer.
Alcohol is a natural part of (broad animal) physiology. It serves to dissolve neural connections -- these need to be rebuilt routinely per learning and cells aging out. The body itself generates a wee bit of alcohol.
Drinking a wee bit more alcohol is unlikely to cause problems for any species -- and likely beneficial. As with refined sugar, refined white flour, and other human technological dietary updates, problems arise from the amount consumed and concentrated (e.g., distilled whiskey) sources.
Only ugandan chimps, where mamdani came from
this helps explain our own fondness for the stuff
It has been such a mystery for so long.
In the new teatament it says not to be drunk, meaning failung to be aware of your surroundings
So apparently the stoned apes evolved out of Africa while the drunk apes remained chimps.
If alcohol is consumed by only eating fermented whole fruit. is that less stressful on the liver and central nervous system?
+4
Yes, consuming alcohol solely through naturally fermented whole fruit is generally less stressful on the liver and central nervous system (CNS) compared to consuming distilled spirits or high-alcohol beverages, but it is not entirely harmless.
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
+1
This method, often referred to as "scrumping," involves consuming low-level, natural ethanol that the human body has evolved to metabolize efficiently over millions of years.
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
This story brought to you by the ngogo chamber of commerce
"Wild chimpanzees 'would fail human sobriety tests'/Chimps love naturally fermented fruit — so much so, they register alcohol levels that would get a human banned from operating heavy machinery"
It's a good thing that Chimps don't have any heavy machinery.
Not true...I've seen combat engineers at work.
RSM: Noah passing out naked drunk directly led to the Hebrew ban on bacon via the curse of Ham
"This method, often referred to as "scrumping," involves consuming low-level, natural ethanol that the human body has evolved to metabolize efficiently over millions of years."
So, alcoholics should eat an orange with every drink.
But now the Dems are telling us that pot is safer.
Like many other D policies and statements, they are living in the past. It was probably safer back when THC levels were 97% lower. We could smoke Mexican weed until we fell asleep but it didn't cause psychosis and paranoia or have the truly addictive quality that modern engineered Marihuana has.
Old vs New marijuana are light years apart. It's like comparing a light beer to a 180-proof firewater.
So, alcoholics should eat an orange with every drink.
For me it's sufficient to squeeze a quarter-lemon into every whiskey sour. No scurvy. No problem!
Hopefully this increases their odds of being able to type out the complete works of Shakespeare when given an infinite number of typewriters.
I guess the authors have never seen wild American animals — squirrels, especially — drunk on fermented fruit. Old pumpkins let outside after Halloween can make a bunch of the little tree-dwelling rodents too drunk to walk straight or climb.
I guess it helps a little to be somewhat stupefied while some other chimp is biting your face off.
Mike Wolf: it is very likely that early popular weed, even the more powerful seed filled Columbian (Lumbo) or opiated Thai sticks, contained a higher relative concentration of CBD which blunts the effects of THC. I remember the first of the Nor Cal sensemilla was inconsistent in Stonyness even though the odor of terpenes was usually very stanky. Now a days, they breed out the high CBD strains to get 30%+ THC.
Social wasps seek out fermented fruit, but honey bees, as a rule, do not.
An important difference between social wasps and honey bees is the fate of the colony. Typically, the colony does not survive the winter months, only individual fertile queens survive the winter, and re-found their colonies afresh each spring. At some point in early autumn the queen stops producing eggs, and instead conserves her energy reserves in preparation for overwintering. Shortly after the cessation of egg production, the queen will reduce her pheromone secretions as well, which during the spring and summer months direct the activities of the workers wasps. Without those chemical controls, the workers lose their interest in animal protein and begin seeking sugar, usually ripe or over-ripe fruit, which includes ethanol.
Back in the early 80's about 60% of the roughnecks I worked with would smoke week on their tours. This was a common and accepted practice. However, alcohol use on location was strictly forbidden because when you have a bunch of apes operating heavy spinning machinery, it's better for them to be paranoid and not cocky and overconfident via Dutch Courage.
Here in Texas, each spring, I have seen Blue Jays enjoy the fermented pyracanthus berries (orange berries that many birds eat in fall). They then hop around in a drunken way and some end up with their backs on the ground flapping their wings, apparently thinking they are flying. So yes, boozy birds is a thing.
Pyracantha, not pyracatnthus, for the annoying pedants and wonderfully knowledgeable gardeners among us all, including my spouse. I told her my comment, and the gardener in her immediately rose to correct me on the name of the flowering and fruiting . Yes, I am sure it was the gardener in her doing the correcting. For the curious who might want to get a bird drunk, pyracantha or firethorns resemble and are related to Cotoneaster, but have serrated leaf margins and numerous thorns. Their berries grow in clumps that provide excellent fall color in a landscape, and range from orange to yellow with large pits. They often last until spring, when freezing and rotting produce the best berries to get a Blue Jay fighting drunk.
This might explain why semaglutide obesity drugs like Ozempic, which dramatically reduce cravings for sugars and make it easier to stick to a high-protein, low-carb diet, also kill one's taste for alcohol.
The brewers and vintners and distillers are really suffering these days, and I think it may have more to do with this phenomenon than with a sudden fervor for temperance among the young people that some observers claim to see.
If the hypothesis is true;
Nice to see that caveat in print.
"Chimps love naturally fermented fruit — so much so, they register alcohol levels that would get a human banned from operating heavy machinery"
But they are okay to jerk off and fling shit.
"Old vs New marijuana are light years apart. It's like comparing a light beer to a 180-proof firewater."
This isn't really true, at least if the baseline comparison is to the early 1980s. Quality cannabis from that era is not as strong as the strongest current strains, but it is not very far off. I was a grower back then and have recently done a bit of (legal) gardening with new strains. My various cannabis consuming friends have been enjoying the results of my new hobby quite a lot, but I don't think I will do it again this year, even though I enjoyed the project. It's just too much work for something I don't even consume.
There is an emerging consensus that no amount of alcohol is good for you. After all, alcohol is a poison, and your body does everything it can to get rid of it after you drink it.
OK buddy, just how much fermented fruit have you had tonight?
Edward Slingerland's book "Drunk" is a good read on the topic of why getting shitfaced is so beneficial in most contexts.
What was that quote from Franklin? “Beer is evidence God loves us, and wants us to be happy.”
Mikee don't sweat the correct botanical name--it may be Blue Jays that get drunk on those berries in Texas--but out here in Southern California it's mocking birds that flock to those red berries.. We're seeing a bunch of boozing birds--not that there is anything wrong with that.
The dose multiplied by the time over target makes the poison. Your mileage may vary, some settling may occur during shipping, past performance isn't a prediction of future results.
"Wild chimpanzees... register alcohol levels that would get a human banned from operating heavy machinery." Unless he was an illegal alien without a CDL.
---- If the hypothesis is true, this helps explain our own fondness for the stuff.
Bzzzt, wrongo. It could just as easily have zero connection to human behavior. To these "Science" writers, any common element with ancient humans or current primates is Proof that our current choices and behaviors were determined by those common elements. We're just a similar, or not-so-similar species living on the same planet. There could be zero connection. The need to make our behaviors predetermined and beyond our own choices and discoveries is a way to inflate their tedious minutiae.
And diminish our humanity and intelligence.
Mikee: “ Here in Texas, each spring, I have seen Blue Jays enjoy the fermented pyracanthus berries”
That must be great to live near an MLB offseason facility! CC, JSam
And freedom. Which is partly or wholly what they are after. We are simple unwitting slaves of Evolution. Another of their fads.
Here's an interesting little known fact. We first mastered fire not to avoid cold but to cook meat. In like way, we first mastered the cultivation of grain not for food but to brew beer. Our civilization, such as it is, was founded on BBQ and beer. These foods are blessed by our creator and are in some ways our creator.
Yes, controlling fire to scare away predators—particularly at night—is widely considered one of the primary, if not the first, reasons early humans (such as Homo erectus) utilized fire, beginning roughly 1 to 1.9 million years ago. Protection from predators was as critical as cooking for survival.
I was hoping Mounjaro would blunt my desire for alcohol. alas, no.
It might give you scurvy
Here in Texas, each spring, I have seen Blue Jays enjoy the fermented pyracanthus berries”
That must be great to live near an MLB offseason facility!
…in my front yard today a team of orioles were doing something similar with the yaupon holly berries! Ah Spring….
This is really stupid. 500ng/ml is approximately 1/1000 of the BAC at which most people are mildly buzzed, and about 1/1600 of the BAC required to be legally intoxicated.
Pub crawl.
500ng/ml = .000005%
Legally intoxicated is .08%
Apparently there are certain heavy machinery operation standards which require that the operator not have consumed alcohol for 24 hours, and 500ng/ml is the threshold they have determined at which alcohol consumption will be detectible for a person who has consumed any alcohol within the past 24 hours. So you might get fired for lying, not for being drunk.
So...more manipulative bullshit pseudo-science.
Alcohol is critical for humanity, it raises fertility rates by at least 0.5 births per female.
Well he's got a pet monkey who likes to get drunky
And sing boogie-woogie, it sounds real funky...
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