Chimps Are Fond of Palm Wine, Study Finds

Chimpanzees are have been found to share a taste for alcohol, according to a new study. They were seen using leaves to drink fermented palm sap.

The study found that some chimps drank enough alcohol to produce "visible signs of inebriation".

Chimpanzees used drinking tools called leaf sponges - handfuls of leaves that they chew and crush into absorbent sponges, dip into the liquid and suck out the contents.

"Some individuals were estimated to have consumed about 85ml of alcohol," said lead researcher Dr Kimberley Hockings from Oxford Brookes University, "the equivalent to 8.5 UK units [approximately equal to a bottle of wine]".

"[They] displayed behavioral signs of inebriation, including falling asleep shortly after drinking.:

"On another occasion after drinking palm wine, one adult male chimpanzee seemed particularly restless."

"While other chimpanzees were making and settling into their night nests, he spent an additional hour moving from tree to tree in an agitated manner. Again pure speculation, but it's certainly something we would like to collect further data on in the future," the researcher told BBC News.

 "Even after 60 years of studying [chimpanzees], they are constantly surprising us," commented Prof Richard Byrne, an evolutionary biologist from the University of St Andrews.

The study was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.