WEBVTT - Do Animals Like Drinking Alcohol? 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:04.040 Hey, welcome to Science Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. I'm 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.000 Hoore Cham and today we are asking the question to 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:12.080 animals like drinking alcohol. Are humans the only species that 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:15.440 enjoy a stiff drink or are there other organisms on 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:18.479 earth that like to get a little tipsy. Sometimes it 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:20.799 turns out that there are some benefits out there in 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:23.759 the wild to hit the sauce, and some of it 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:27.520 might be in our genes. So raise your glasses and 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:30.400 take a shot of signs with us as we find 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:41.960 out if animals like drinking alcohol. Bottoms up. Hey everyone, 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:45.440 all right, I'm not a big drinker or an animal expert, 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:48.480 but fortunately I do know someone who is at least 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.920 one of those things. To answer today's question, I brought 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:56.160 back my friend Katie Golden. Katie's a biologist and animal 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:00.120 expert and the host of the podcast Creature Feature. She 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:02.280 did a deep dive for us on this topic, looking 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:07.959 at everything from drunk elephants do fruit fly beer goggles. 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:12.559 So here's my chat with Katie Golden. All right, Katie, 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:13.800 thanks so much for being on the show. 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:16.640 I am so excited to talk about this. You can't 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.920 even believe I've been having such a blast reading studies 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:21.120 about this. It's so fun. 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:23.200 Oh yeah, you're drunk on information. 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:27.720 I really am. I find it intoxicating. Education is intoxicating. 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:30.720 Why is that not a slogan for schools. 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:33.280 Well, now that we have a new Health and Human 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:35.800 Services secretary, maybe he'll get on it. 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:37.959 Hey, you know what, it sounds like something they do. 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:43.119 So today we're answering the question do animals like drinking alcohol? 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.600 And then made me wonder if your dog Cookie? 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:45.840 Right? 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:48.720 Yes, if Cookie has been hitting the sauce lately. 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:53.160 If by sauce you mean jerky treats, I got her yes. 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:57.320 If by sauce you mean do I give my dog alcohol? No, 0:01:57.960 --> 0:01:59.160 I have enough problems. 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:01.600 Cookie has enough problems. 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:05.760 Yeah, but alcohol einate one. Yeah. No, She's perfectly happy 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:07.880 to receive dog type foods. 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:10.760 So what do you think, Katie? Do animals like drinking alcohol? 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:16.000 The short answer is yes and moderation. The longer answer 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:20.000 is it depends on the animal's diet and that animals 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:25.440 drink ethanol, which is nature's version of alcohol, both intentionally 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:26.880 and accidentally. 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.320 Can you maybe give us some examples in nature of 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.480 animals who might have a little problem with the bottle? 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:38.040 Yeah? Absolutely, In general, animals that are going to eat 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:42.800 things like fruits or nectar or are omnivorous are more 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:48.799 likely to drink alcohol. Animals that are carnivores or insectivores 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:51.440 who have a completely different diet are probably going to 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:53.240 be less attracted to alcohol. 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:56.440 Unless maybe you're a carnivore that accidentally eats a drunk animal. 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.359 Right, that's a good point. That is a very good point. 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.720 Po who likes their prey marinated in a bit of wine? 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:08.320 Okay, So Kate cast lots of examples in nature of 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:13.040 animals drinking alcohol, from civets in Southeast Asia, do monkeys 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.799 in Africa, to fruit flies, but first she wanted to 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:21.320 talk about the myth that sometimes elephants get drunk eating 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.200 fermented fruits. 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:28.400 So there's a lot of interesting ideas about animals drinking alcohol, 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:32.480 and a lot of misconceptions actually came from this famous 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:36.080 nineteen seventy four documentary, kind of putting in quotes because 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.840 it's more of an entertainment movie. It was called Animals 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:40.760 or Beautiful People. 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:42.440 What did this movie show? 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:47.080 The movie was an attempt to kind of humanize animals, 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:50.040 to show a lot of interesting animal behavior. It's actually 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:52.480 not a bad concept for a movie, and it was 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.080 certainly very interesting at the time right where it focused 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:59.000 on sub Saharan Africa and these grasslands and a lot 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.280 of the animal behavior here, So it was a really 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.040 interesting kind of view for people into the world of 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.680 animals that maybe they've never seen except at a zoo. 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.320 So the movie shows these elephants like stumbling, yeah, like 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.880 lying down, real what drunk behavior for an elepantting. 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.279 Trunks around each other. I love you, man, No, I 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.760 love you man, You're the best. So what it showed 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:23.360 was a bunch of elephants. I think there were also 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:28.880 some baboons and other animals kind of languidly staggering around 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.640 a tree with all these fruit on the ground. But 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:34.680 the problem was the kind of playing fast and loose 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.520 with the truth there, right. The actual footage of these 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:43.279 animals stumbling around drunk was absolutely staged, particularly the elephants. 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:46.960 So it's thought what they did was they either soaked 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:50.679 the fruit in alcohol so that they would be more potent, 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.520 or they may have even administered some kind of tranquilizer 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:58.640 to the elephants to get them to act drunk. The 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:01.840 idea that the elephants could get drunk on these were 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:05.719 fermented fruit from a marula tree. It doesn't check out. 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:09.480 So there was actually a research paper that looked into 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:11.400 this and tried to figure out whether or not an 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.520 elephant could get drunk on these fermented fruit. 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:18.600 Wait, a research paper about a movie about elephant, a research. 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:22.160 Paper about the myth that elephants could get drunk eating 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:26.280 fermented fruit. The papers called myth Maroula and Elephant, an 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:30.800 Assessment of voluntary ethanol intoxication of the African Elephant following 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.360 feeding on the fruit of the Marula tree. Because this 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.920 is something even though this movie came out in nineteen 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.159 seventy four, I have actually seen claims made about this 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.359 on the internet today that elephants can get drunk eating 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:46.560 fermented fruit. These researchers took the time to actually work 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:49.160 out how much an elephant would have to have of 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:53.800 this fruit to get drunk. They summarized that a three 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.160 thousand kilogram elephant, like a normal sized elephant, would need 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.960 to quickly drink about ten to twenty five liters of 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:05.160 seven percent ethanol to get just timpsy. What, that's a 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:07.800 lot of alcohol that would kill you? Like if we 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:10.080 tried to do that, we would die. That would be 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:15.360 a ridiculous amount of alcohol. These fermented fruit might generously 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:20.000 contain about three percent ethanol, and normal feeding behavior for 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:23.279 the elephants would result in only have the ethanol required 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:27.000 to even get a little tipsy. So very unlikely. But 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:31.200 it's not just the sketchy documentary that made this claim 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:35.640 about elephants getting drunk. There's actually a lot of locals 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:40.640 talking about elephants acting strange around marolla trees and getting 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:43.520 more aggressive. So the idea was that, hey, we know 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:46.840 that these fruit can sometimes be fermented, and elephants eat 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:49.839 the fruit, so maybe they're getting angry drunk, right, they're 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.320 getting ornery, But given that that doesn't really work out 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:57.160 in terms of how much alcohol they're consuming, it's more 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.359 likely that they're just aggressive because they really like to 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.400 eat the fruit. Maybe it's a really high value dietary resource, 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:07.239 and they're getting angry rather than getting drunk, so they're 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:11.520 being defensive of the fruit. Another theory, actually really weird one. 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.760 This has not been proven, it's but it's something that 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:19.000 is possible, is that it's not the fruit that the 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.480 elephants are getting intoxicated from, but the bark of the trees, 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:26.440 so they often strip the bark and consume it. The 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.520 bark itself is not toxic, and it's not it wouldn't 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:33.280 cause anebriation. But there are these larva of a toxic 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:38.920 beetle called Damphidia that pupit in the bark. And there 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:42.400 is this hypothesis that the elephants might actually be getting high, 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.760 not drunk, from these toxins found in the beetles. 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:48.840 Which is wild, right. 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.000 So you see this observation of elephants acting really weird 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:54.400 and aggressive around these trees, but it has nothing to 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:57.400 do maybe with the fruit. It could have something to 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:00.000 do with these beetle larvae. This has not been proven. 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.000 This is a theory. I have no idea how you 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.320 attest this in any ethical way. Give a bunch of 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:07.640 toxic beetles to an elephant and see if it goes 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:09.120 on a rampaging bender. 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.360 I don't know, or I'm surprised the locals haven't tried 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:12.360 the beetles themselves. 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:14.880 They have been used by humans. These beetles have been 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.960 used for poisoning arrows and weapons. That's part of the 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:20.080 reason we know about them. 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:21.640 I see it's supportent toxic. 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:25.040 I can't in good conscience tell anyone to try these larvae. 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:26.520 I think that might be bad for you. 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:28.520 Well that might be our next episode with you, is 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:32.320 the animals like getting high? Yes, yes, well you said 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:34.920 the ethanol comes from the fruity. So what's going on, 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.280 Like the fruit falls and then rots and turns into alcohol. 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:42.640 Essentially, So it's not necessarily rotting. The fermentation process happens 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:48.040 because yeast is naturally occurring little organism that can be 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:50.719 in the air or find itself on the fruit, and 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.679 it will break down the sugars and the fruit. And 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:57.920 the byproduct of this yeast breaking down the sugars and 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:01.960 the fruit is ethanol. Same way we brew beer, any 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.080 kind of alcohol wine, you have some source of sugar, 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:07.959 you have yeast, You have this breakdown of the sugars, 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:10.360 and it turns into ethanol and we can drink that 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:14.120 byproduct the little bacterial or the little yeast poops that 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.440 they are creating. So that's the same thing that happens 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.240 with fruit. There's actually this really interesting thing that happens 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:25.560 with berries when winter is transitioning to summer. So you 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:29.120 have these sort of frozen berries that are on trees, 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.640 and they are being preserved so they're not completely rotting 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:36.439 or shriveling. But as it gets warmer and sunnier, they 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:40.200 start to ripen. They start to be more exposed such 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.040 that yeast can get to work and they can ferment, 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.720 but there's still relatively frozen, so they stay fresh and 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.440 they stay on the tree. So a lot of birds, 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:55.120 particularly these overwintering birds like wax wings, will eat these berries, 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:57.920 not necessarily expecting them to be essentially a little tiny 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:02.079 bird size jello shots, and then they get really drunk 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.000 and it can be bad for them. There's actually in 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:09.600 the Yukon these birds called Bohemian waxwings. They're really beautiful. 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:13.480 They will get drunk so frequently on these berries that 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:18.240 local wildlife rehabilitation centers have these bird drunk tanks where 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:20.480 they take the birds in let them sleep it off, 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:22.439 because otherwise they might get in troubled. 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:24.360 Wait, what do you mean like to capture these drunk 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:26.040 birds and put them in a kind of like a 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:26.880 rehab facility. 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.000 Exactly, They just slid them to sleep off the booze 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:31.040 and then they re release. 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.480 How do you know if a bird is drunk flies. 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:39.560 Into your window? Sometimes they'll probably see them on the 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:43.800 ground acting confused, kind of stumbling around, you know, much 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.719 like a person or inert right, Like, if you can 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:48.880 pick up a bird, that's not a good sign. The 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:51.640 bird's probably sick or possibly drunk. 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.560 I see, Okay, when we come back, Katie's going to 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.600 tell us about some animals that do intentionally drink alcohol 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.840 and how in fruit flies that can affect their mating habits. 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:19.080 Stay with us, We'll be right back and we're back. 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.000 So then, what did that paper conclude? 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.880 That elephants probably do not get drunk on fermented fruit. 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.200 They probably eat it quite a bit, but it would 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.679 require a huge amount for them to get drunk. It 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:35.800 would be so hard for them to eat that much, 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:38.560 and it would go against what their typical eating behavior is. 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:42.320 And it also require each fruit to contain a pretty 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:47.320 unlikely amount of ethanol in the fruit. So it's very 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:51.319 hard to get an elephant drunk, is what this paper found. 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:54.199 Yeah, it's interesting that, of course the Internet would try 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:56.560 to figure out how much alcohloing to get to an 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:57.600 elephant to get it drunk. 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.480 Yes, and how many elephants can you drink with before 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:03.840 you get kicked out? Of a bar. That's the cat one. 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:05.920 How many elephants can you fit in a bar? 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:08.800 Exactly? Would the elephant be the designated driver? 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:11.920 Well, the good thing is that if you are drunk, 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:13.640 then you can just you know, get in the trunk. 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:14.719 Yeah, there you go. 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:17.520 And I have to say this is probably the first 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.240 episode I can get my daughter to listen to because 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.760 it features drunk elephant. Yes, which is a very trendy 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.959 brand of beauty. Has skincare heard of it? 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:27.840 I have heard of it? 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:31.360 All right, Well, what are some other examples of animals 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.839 in nature that eat or drink? I'll call Well, a. 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:38.480 Really cute one that I like is this animal called 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:42.600 a palm civet. Now they're called palmsivets or civet cats. 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.040 They're actually not cats, and they're not at all related 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:49.040 to felines. They're vivarid's. They're very cute, like a cross 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:51.240 between a fair and a cat. They're very, very cute. 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:55.280 They live in South and Southeast Asia forests, and they're 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.400 famous for other reasons. Actually, Kobe Luwak, have you heard 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:02.120 of this? It's where they eat the coffee beans and 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:04.960 it's excreted in their poop. Uh huh, and then people 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.480 will say like, well, this is really good coffee because 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:09.480 they know how to put the beans at their perfect 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:11.360 ripeness and then it comes out in their poop. 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.520 I have had Have you had it coffee? Yeah? Yeah, 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:16.400 we were in BALI. 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:16.960 How is it? 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.959 It was tasty? I mean, I'm not a coffee kind 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:23.640 of sewer, but I mean it definitely felt a little richer, yeah, darker. 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.280 And this is a great example of an animal who's 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:35.200 perfectly in the position to enjoy nature's brew. So this 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:38.520 civic cat is so in love with the taste of 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:43.880 fermented palm sap. They've been nicknamed toddy cats. So yeah, 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:47.520 so the locals would call this a fermented sap toddy 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:50.760 and they noticed that this palm civet would drink it 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:54.040 a lot. They really show this preference for this fermented 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:57.720 palm sap. And that palm sap actually is pretty high 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.280 in terms of its alcohol content. It gets up to 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.280 about five percent alcohol content. So that's not bad. 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:05.720 I'd take a beer, right Yeah. And where do they 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:07.800 get it? Does it ferment in the tree itself? 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:11.120 Yeah? So ferments in these sort of crevices in the palms, 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:12.760 so they can get it like go in. They go 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:15.800 directly in and lap it up. It's actually something that 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:19.440 people can also collect and brew themselves, so you can 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.480 get sap from the tree brew it, and when human 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.120 beings are doing that, the civets are really attracted to that, 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:27.800 so they'll calm down and kind of hang out with 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.080 you and try to get some of the fermented palm 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:34.280 sap that people drink called toddy. Yeah. So there's a 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.080 lot of research and one of the leading theories for 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.840 why they like this fermented palm sap so much is 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:45.560 that it's very high in calories, so they're not necessarily 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.640 going after it because they want to feel the buzz, 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:50.600 although they might actually enjoy the feeling. 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:53.040 Yeah, I imagine after a long day, you want to 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.600 kick back with the palm like their beer. 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:59.640 Yeah, exactly, grab a beer with your buddies. It's funny 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:01.960 because it's sort of the inverse of humans, like we 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:04.920 like to drink, but we don't like the extra calories. 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:08.800 But for animals, they don't have access to grocery stores 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:11.920 and uber eats, so having something that's really high in 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:14.960 calories means that they have to do less work right. 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:17.920 Right, like getting drunk is an unfortunate side effect for 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:20.120 them or maybe fortunate. Can you tell? 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:24.080 It depends right. Obviously for the birds we talked about, 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:26.600 that's really bad for them to get drunk. It can 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:30.680 actually hurt them. Some of them can overdose on alcohol 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:33.760 and either get alcohol poisoning and die, or smack into 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:36.080 something and die, or be a nice drunk little treat 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:37.040 for predator. 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.240 Okay, The next example Katie told me of animals that'd 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.400 like to drink alcohol are tiny fruit flies. 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:50.720 They're so tiny. I think that fruitflies would be sort 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.360 of the opposite of an elephant, Like they have a 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.520 little bit of ethanol and they're they're just completely laid out. 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.480 Because they're so tiny, they should get drunk really easily. 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:04.640 I love ethanol. So fruitflies, as well as most organisms, 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:10.360 have an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase, or ADH, which can 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:13.560 help turn alcohol into lipids. So we also have a 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:17.360 version of this, as do pretty much most organisms. So 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:21.320 depending on the species of fruit flies, such as those 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:24.440 who lay their eggs on rotting fruit, they may have 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:29.440 the genes for ADH enzymes that produce them that more 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:34.440 efficiently metabolize ethanol. So there are these fruitflies that have 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.960 adapted to be more efficient, essentially at drinking, being able 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:41.720 to metabolize ethanol without getting too drunk. 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:43.560 Because they I guess they find it in nature, like 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:44.680 in these fermented fruits. 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.440 Maybe exactly, they're fruitflies and they have pretty easy access 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:51.200 to fermented fruit rotting fruit, right, so they lay their 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.800 eggs on rotting fruit, so it really helps to be 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:56.160 able to digest this fruit as it's routing. 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.480 I wonder do they still get drunk like insects get drunk. 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:03.360 That's really interesting. They can actually and it can lower 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:09.280 their inhibitions. There's this really funny study on fruitflies where 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:11.879 they found that. Well, first le me tell you the 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.200 name of the study because it's actually pretty funny. It's 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:21.440 sexual deprivation increases ethanol intake in Drosophilia. So when these 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:25.040 fruit flies called dmil and A. Gasters, when they are 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:30.199 rejected by a female, they will consume more ethanol than 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:33.320 the males who are not rejected by the females who 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:34.920 successfully mate with the females. 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.280 Okay, this is pretty amazing. In this study, scientists from 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:44.080 the University of California, San Francisco separated two groups of 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:47.840 male fruitflies. One group they would put in an enclosure 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:51.560 with a bunch of version female fruit flies, and they 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:55.520 would just go at it. The other group of male fruitlies, however, 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.400 was placed in an enclosure with females that had already 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:03.200 made it, so they would almost all reject the males. 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.040 The scientists would do this for days, so one group 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:09.840 of males got to me normally and the other group 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:14.200 would just get rejected all the time. Then the scientist 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:18.440 gave the male fruit flies two options for food, either 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:22.400 normal food, which was just sugar water with yees extract, 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.200 or normal food with fifteen percent alcohol, which is about 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:30.280 as strong as a port or a sherry. What the 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:33.439 scientist found was that the male flies that kept getting 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:37.440 rejected would basically drink more alcohol than the male flies 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:44.200 that didn't get rejected. Well, first of all, it's like 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.040 they're taking solace in the alcohol because they got rejected. 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.679 Yes, maybe, I mean it's interesting because the paper was 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.720 really looking at sort of this interesting trade off in 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:56.720 terms of reward pathways. Right, So the fly goes out, 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.119 it wants to mate, It doesn't get this mating, and 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.160 so it's like still kind of looking forward to satiate 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.520 this reward pathway in its brain. Then it maybe overindulges 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:08.000 in something else where it's trying to get this sort 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:10.639 of reward, whereas the flies that successfully made it's like 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:14.119 this reward pathway has been satisfied to some degree, so 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.600 it doesn't have the need to overindulge in the alcohol. 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:19.640 I see they're already drunk on love. 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:20.600 Exactly. 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:23.120 Did I need to hit the bottle to feel better? 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.159 I mean, it's very relatable though, even beyond alcohol, right 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.399 was humans like when we're stressed or when we're feeling 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.760 rejected or something, we might overindulge, not just an alcohol, 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:37.439 but food, sweet, video games, whatever. We kind of like 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.320 as like a icee because you know, we still need 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:42.959 to satisfy this reward pathway. But I didn't get it 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:44.400 this way, so I need to get it that way. 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:46.880 So that's one of the theories behind why these poor 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:48.920 fruit flies drink when they're rejected. 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:53.240 I need to feel good somehow, Yes, exactly. And that's 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.560 not the only interesting thing that scientists have found. In 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:02.880 another study titled Recurring ethanol exposure induces disinhibited courtship in Drosophila, 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:06.960 scientists at Penn State University found that alcohol need fruit 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:11.320 flies more aroused and lower their inhibitions. 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:17.200 So when they drink more ethanol, their inhibitions are lowered. 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:22.240 It increases their arousal while also decreasing their cognitive abilities. 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:27.280 So basically it lowers their standards so they can go 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.120 back out there. So it's very human like, right. 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:33.359 It kind of gives them beer goggles, yeah, seeing it 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:34.440 lowers their. 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:35.640 Standards, lowers their standards. 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:37.879 Yeah, although film flies have like a million eyes, so 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:40.160 you need like a million little beer goggles. 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:44.159 They have compound eyes sort of like many facets to 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.679 their eyes, so you would need very complicated beer goggles. 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:51.000 Yeah, it actually lowers their standards, so they go back 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:54.399 out there with maybe more more confidence. 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.520 Go back out there. It lowers their standards also. Females, 0:20:57.560 --> 0:20:58.920 it lowers their standards as well. 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:06.760 Yeah, we're relatable to a college campus perhaps, yes, woh. 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.199 Interesting, So yes, to answer your question, fruit flies can 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:10.560 get drunk and they do sometimes. 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:14.639 So yeah, fruit flies seem to have a lot in 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:19.120 common with college students. All right, when we come back, 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:21.840 Katie's going to tell us a few more examples of 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:25.760 animals who like to get tipsy, including what you calls 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:30.480 the best drinker in the animal kingdom. Stay with us, 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:44.720 we'll be right back, and we're back then. 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:48.560 Some animals are actually specifically adapted to be resistant to 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:52.840 getting too drunk because they drink ethanol so much. They 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:57.040 really rely on it as this caloric resource. But if 0:21:57.040 --> 0:21:59.959 they got as drunk as they should get by drinking 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:01.720 all of that, they would not be able to function 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:04.159 and it wouldn't do them any goods. So there is 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:08.720 this tree shrew called the pin tailed tree shrew. They're 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:13.200 really really cute. They're found in Thailand, Borneo, and Indonesia 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:16.520 and these dense forests. They're small, they are only about 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:21.360 fifty grams. They look like mice with the really long noses. 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:25.160 They have these little feathery tufts, so they're adorable. They're 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:28.560 really small. They don't really seem like the type to 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:31.199 be a huge party animal out there boozing it up 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:33.440 every night, but they absolutely are. They're one of the 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:36.240 best drinkers in the animal kingdom. 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:37.919 Uh yeah. 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:42.160 So they drink the nectar of Bertram palm buds, So 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:44.680