A tiny tree-shrew that lives on alcoholic nectar could - pound for pound - drink the average human under the table, scientists have discovered. Malaysia's pen-tailed tree-shrew waits until nightfall to binge on fermented nectar from the bertam palm. The animal could give insights into how humans' alcohol tolerance first evolved, the scientists say.
Despite the shrews' small size, they are no lightweights when it comes to their alcohol intake. Nectar from the flower buds of the bertam palm is fermented to a maximum alcohol content of up to 3.8% (Sam Adams Lite - I am told). Each bud is a miniature brewery, containing a yeast community that turns the nectar into a frothy beer-like beverage. Yet the animals, which are about the size of a small rat, do not seem to get drunk at all, researchers say.
Scientists believe the animals - which are distant relatives of humans - have had 55 million years of evolution to adapt to their boozy lifestyle. (What great pedigree for us mere humans!!). Humans may even preserve a relic of the shrews' love of alcohol that has lasted through millions of years of evolution. The scientists wrote that the pen-tailed tree-shrew is "a living model for extinct mammals, representing the stock from all extinct and living tree-shrews and primates radiated". They added: "Therefore, we hypothesise that moderate to high alcohol intake was present early on in the evolution of these closely related lineages." The researchers also filmed a primate known as a slow loris feeding from the bertam palm. The palm produces nectar year-round on a complex schedule that appears to maximize pollination by small mammals.
What does this say about yeast and its ability to have us breed it forever and ever for its own good?!!
