--- title: Chimpanzees Like Drinking 'Alcohol,' Too | TIME description: A 17-year study found chimpanzees will seek out and drink the alcohol in fermenting tree sap, but they don’t appear to get drunk. canonical: https://time.com/video/w3yBTSax/ og:title: Chimpanzees Like Drinking 'Alcohol,' Too og:description: A 17-year study found chimpanzees will seek out and drink the alcohol in fermenting tree sap, but they don’t appear to get drunk. og:url: https://time.com/video/w3yBTSax/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/w3yBTSax/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chimpanzees Like Drinking 'Alcohol,' Too twitter:description: A 17-year study found chimpanzees will seek out and drink the alcohol in fermenting tree sap, but they don’t appear to get drunk. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/w3yBTSax/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Chimpanzees Like Drinking 'Alcohol,' Too > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Chimpanzees Like Drinking 'Alcohol,' Too [Watch (HLS stream): Chimpanzees Like Drinking 'Alcohol,' Too](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/w3yBTSax.m3u8) (1:48)  _Published 2015-06-10. A 17-year study found chimpanzees will seek out and drink the alcohol in fermenting tree sap, but they don’t appear to get drunk._ --- Jul 27, 2023 6:24 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Why Americans—Especially Women—Are Drinking More Alcohol](/video/rXifJwiL/) ### Why Americans—Especially Women—Are Drinking More Alcohol [Alcohol Is Good for Your Heart—Most of the Time](/video/fZGLBSul/) ### Alcohol Is Good for Your Heart—Most of the Time [CDC Study Finds Most Excessive Drinkers Are Not Alcoholics](/video/05XtnbCN/) ### CDC Study Finds Most Excessive Drinkers Are Not Alcoholics --- ## Transcript Researchers have found some chimpanzees in West Africa are habitual drinkers. The 17- year study marks the first observations of repeated and habitual alcohol consumption by any wild ape. Research Researchers observed chimpanzees using wadded up leaves as sponges to drink Rafia palm sap, which turns into alcohol when it ferments. The sap is about 3 % alcohol by volume, roughly equivalent to a light beer. One research told the BBC, some individuals were estimated to have consumed about 85 millilitres to alcohol per visit, or an amount approximately equal to a bottle of wine. And while the researchers observed altered behavior in some chimpanzees after drinking, they say it's not clear if they got drunk in the traditional human sense. Importantly, they say there's no concrete evidence of this behavior in the wild. Chimps need humans to start the process. The researchers wrote, raffia palm sap drinking is opportunistic. Relying on a person having installed the specialized equipment to drain the sap from a mature palm. Still the study supports what's known as the drunken monkey hypothesis, that some ten million years ago a common ancestor to humans and other primates evolved the ability to metabolize alcohol more affectively than other animals. Not like moose. There's evidence moose in Norway might sometimes get drunk after eating piles of fermenting fruit, which could explain the shoe shopping. Lorikeets are lightweights too. But not certain tree shrews. One study found They can drink enough to get a human tipsy, but they don't appear to feel it. Of course, even primates have their limits. In the Caribbean, some vervet monkeys who steal human alcohol show the apparent universal signs of intoxication. Maybe they should take notes on the chimpanzees' moderation. 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