These chimpanzees were a barrel or laughter.
The wild chimpanzees in Western Africa were captured in video for the first time sharing the fruit of fermented African bread containing ethanol.
Researchers at the University of Exeter in England established cameras in Cantanhez National Park in Guinea-Bissau.
Primates may have been using alcohol as humans, the team said in its report published in the scientific journal Current Biology.
“For humans, we know that drinking alcohol leads to a release of dopamine and endorphins, and the results of happiness and relaxation,” said environmentalist Anna Bowland, the main author of the study, in a university report.
“We also know that sharing alcohol, even through traditions such as Feigne, helps to form and strengthen social ties.”
The creatures were filmed 10 times enjoying the drunk fruit, which contained 0.61% ABV [alcohol by volume]That it is relatively low, so the researchers concluded that it was unlikely that the chimpanzees will get drunk.
The group is using the discovery to do more research on animal drinks habits and whether or not the leaves are in early evolutionary history.
“Chimpanzees do not share food all the time, so this behavior with fermented fruit could be important,” Dr. Kimberley Hockings, a researcher at the University of Exeter, said in the report.
“We need to obtain more information on whether they deliberately seek ethanolic fruits and how they metabolize it, but this behavior could be the early stages of pretending.”