{"id":107605,"date":"2025-08-15T18:32:49","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T18:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/animals-and-insects-drink-for-different-reasons-than-humans"},"modified":"2025-08-15T18:53:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T18:53:52","slug":"animals-and-insects-drink-for-different-reasons-than-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/animals-and-insects-drink-for-different-reasons-than-humans","title":{"rendered":"Animals and Insects Drink for Different Reasons Than Humans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Anecdotal evidence and scientific research have shown some wild animals\u2019 penchant for fermented fruits, nectar and sap containing alcohol, but their reasons for consuming the naturally-created alcohol appear to differ vastly from those of humans, new research suggests.<\/p>\n<p>Animals, birds and even insects enjoy the odd bit of ethanol in their diets at rates far higher than previously believed, with naturally-occurring alcohol found in nearly every ecosystem on Earth, research published Wednesday in the Trends in Ecology &amp; Evolution, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, suggests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re moving away from this anthropocentric view that ethanol is just something that humans use,\u201d University of Exeter behavioral ecologist Kimberley Hockings, the paper\u2019s senior author, said in a press statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s much more abundant in the natural world than we previously thought, and most animals that eat sugary fruits are going to be exposed to some level of ethanol,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Fermented fruit-based concentrations of ethanol typically reach about 1-2% of the fruits&#8217; total volume, but can reach 10% or more in some cases -like fermenting palm fruit found in Panama, according to researchers. For some animals, including birds and small mammals, even a 1-2% dose can be intoxicating, if not deadly, the study\u2019s authors noted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is not advantageous to be inebriated as you\u2019re climbing around in the trees or surrounded by predators at night \u2013 that\u2019s a recipe for not having your genes passed on,\u201d paper co-author Matthew Carrigan, a professor of molecular ecology at the College of Central Florida, said.<\/p>\n<p>However, unlike humans, who often seek to use alcohol to forget their troubles or as an aid or crutch (depending on one&#8217;s perspective) for social occasions, wild animals apparently seek the sustenance that naturally-sourced alcohol can provide.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the opposite of humans who want to get intoxicated but don\u2019t really want the calories \u2013 from the non-human perspective, the animals want the calories but not the inebriation,\u201d Carrigan said.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers say further research is needed to determine whether animals deliberately consume ethanol-laced foods, and what impact consumption has on evolutionary patterns and animal physiology.<\/p>\n<p>But besides calories, they say fermentation helps animals and insects find food in the wild, and for some species, including fruit flies laying their eggs in fruit, ethanol is said to have an important benefit \u2013 protection from parasites.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the cognitive side, ideas have been put forward that ethanol can trigger the endorphin and dopamine system, which leads to feelings of relaxation that could have benefits in terms of sociality,\u201d University of Exeter behavioral ecologist and co-author Anna Bowland said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo test that, we&#8217;d really need to know if ethanol is producing a physiological response in the wild,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Rwanda<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. Anecdotal evidence and scientific research have shown some wild animals\u2019 penchant for fermented fruits, nectar and sap containing alcohol, but their reasons for consuming the naturally-created alcohol appear to differ vastly from those of humans, new research suggests. Animals, birds and even insects enjoy the odd bit of ethanol in their diets [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":107604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,31],"tags":[758],"class_list":["post-107605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Animals and Insects Drink for Different Reasons Than Humans - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anecdotal evidence and scientific research have shown some wild animals\u2019 penchant for fermented fruits, nectar and sap c ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/animals-and-insects-drink-for-different-reasons-than-humans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Animals and Insects Drink for Different Reasons Than Humans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anecdotal evidence and scientific research have shown some wild animals\u2019 penchant for fermented fruits, nectar and sap c ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/animals-and-insects-drink-for-different-reasons-than-humans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-15T18:32:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-15T18:53:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/08\/sm_1755271399.998036.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1407\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/animals-and-insects-drink-for-different-reasons-than-humans#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/animals-and-insects-drink-for-different-reasons-than-humans\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Animals and Insects Drink for Different Reasons Than Humans\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-15T18:32:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-15T18:53:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/animals-and-insects-drink-for-different-reasons-than-humans\"},\"wordCount\":470,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/animals-and-insects-drink-for-different-reasons-than-humans#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/08\/sm_1755271399.998036.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/animals-and-insects-drink-for-different-reasons-than-humans#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/animals-and-insects-drink-for-different-reasons-than-humans\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/animals-and-insects-drink-for-different-reasons-than-humans\",\"name\":\"Animals and Insects Drink for Different Reasons Than Humans - 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