Chimpanzees Consume Alcohol Equivalent to Two Cocktails Daily from Fermented Fruit

Chimpanzee Fruit Consumption

• 🐒 Chimpanzees consume up to 10% of their body weight in ripe fruit daily, which includes naturally fermented fruits like figs and plums.
• ⚖️ Scientists estimate this leads to the ingestion of approximately 14 grams of ethanol each day, comparable to two alcoholic drinks for humans.

Dietary Alcohol vs. Concentrated Drinks

• 🍎 The alcohol from fermented fruit is consumed as part of their regular diet, spread throughout the day, rather than in concentrated forms.
• 🍞 This consumption is more akin to eating a large amount of fermented foods like miso, kimchi, sauerkraut, or even fresh bread, which also contain ethanol.
• 🚶 If humans ate 10% of their body weight in fermented fruit daily, they would experience similar alcohol intake levels.

Speed Limit on Alcohol Abuse

• ⏱️ Chimpanzees' alcohol exposure is limited by their eating speed and stomach capacity, acting as a natural speed limit on alcohol abuse.
• 📊 While the estimate is an average, chimpanzees may consume higher amounts of fruit when it's more available or more fermented, though behavioral effects are unknown.

The Drunken Monkey Hypothesis

• 🦍 The Drunken Monkey Hypothesis suggests that the human attraction to alcohol originated from the fruit-heavy diets of our ape ancestors millions of years ago.
• 🤔 The intentional production and consumption of alcohol by humans remains an open question regarding its origins (how, why, where, and when).
• ✅ The predisposition to alcohol from ancestral diets, however, is considered a solved part of this puzzle.