Are animals intentionally using alcohol in fruits and fungi? Are animals at risk as a result, or are they happy and excited? Are they individual cases or is it inherited behavior? Then do animals know their limits when drinking, or do they go overboard?
There are many videos on the Internet that confirm animals such as elephants and monkeys like to eat or drink stuff that contains alcohol. Likewise, elk of the moose species become drunk by eating rotten fruits and birds do the same thing with frozen berries, and all of these fruits are considered a substitute for wine. The hedgehogs also suck the beer for which is placed as a Trap and reindeer animals eat up mushrooms that cause hallucinations. Many of these videos are documented and proven true, but only a few have been researched. Are animals intentionally consuming alcohol contained in fruits and fungi? Are animals at risk as a result, or are they happy and excited? Are they individual cases or is it inherited behavior? The researchers are most concerned about: What do we learn from the animal kingdom regarding addictive human behavior? Heinrich Schulz is one of the few researchers in Germany who have researched this topic, specializing in Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of Cologne, as well as Wolfgang Sommer, a psychiatrist, and Reiner Spanagel, a researcher in pharmacology, both of them at the Mental Health Institute in Mannheim German.
The goal behind Schultz's laboratory in Cologne is not to produce comedies where researchers feed the fruit flies with alcohol and then monitor the reaction of the flies "when we give the flies a alcohol and then let it wake up, and we return and give them the alcohol again, it changes its behavior," Schultz explained. Schultz indicated that this flies under the influence of alcohol become more active, hovering in place and flying in curves, and then falls for some time and remains on his back without movement. The German researcher explained that this flies need a longer time before the degree of drunken reaches the second time, and justified this by adapting the process of converting food to the energy of "metabolism" and said that the effect of this adaptation is also reflected in the brain. Schultz also found that "alcohol does not only change the metabolism, as its effect also appears in the brain."
Once the flies have recovered from the influence of alcohol, he wants to return to the comfortable state they were in, by the reward system. That is, fruit flies can also become addicted. Rather, this flies accepts exposure in the way that does not satisfy him, as these flies were ready, for example, during experiments to carry materials once if these materials would allow him to obtain alcohol, and here Schultz sees similarities with humans.
Professor Wolfgang Sommer, of the Mannheim Institute of Mental Health, confirmed that researchers know from the animal kingdom that alcohol consumption passes "from the earthworm through to mice and rats to the primates." Zomer is researching the neurological, genetic, and behavioral foundations of addiction. His colleague, Rainer Spangal, focused on the treeshrews in Malaysia, which only feeds on the nectar of some palm trees, which is about 4% alcohol, which is equivalent to a bottle of vodka per day for humans, due to the small animal weight compared to the weight of the Human.
However, this animal does not show any trace of ataxia affected by alcohol, which researchers consider an adaptation of the animal's metabolism system with alcohol in a way that makes it benefit from it effectively. And unlike some people, animals, whether fruit flies or treeshrews, know their limitations in alcohol consumption, as Schultz discovered that up to 5% of alcohol is attractive to fruit flies, which is equivalent to the content of a cup of beer for humans.
And if this percentage increases, the negative consequences of drinking become predominant on the animal's body.