ANIMALS GET THEIR DRINK ON

HUMANS AREN’T THE only ones who enjoy their libations. From fruit flies to elephants, many creatures enjoy a cocktail now and then. Or, even a bender. Their source? Fermenting fruit. Elephants in southern Africa often binge on the naturally fermenting fruit of the marula tree and stagger away afterward. Howler monkeys in Central American forests can become extremely tipsy after feeding on the lightly alcoholic ripe fruit of the Astrocaryum palm, sometimes downing the equivalent of 1O bar drinks in a session. Scientists in western Africa have recently discovered that chimpanzees go to the trouble of making sponges out of crumpled leaves to soak up the lightly fermenting juices that exude from raffia palms. Even the lowly fruit fly has been known to sidle up to the bar: Flies exposed to moderate levels of alcohol fumes live longer than their teetotaling counterparts. But the improbable world champion of handling naturally occurring booze is the tiny pen-tailed treeshrew of Malaysia. Weighing only a few ounces, these creatures regularly binge on vast quantities of fermented palm sap. But they seem to have evolved specialized mechanisms for detoxifying all that ethanol: Even after a bender, they show no signs of inebriation, which could have tempted hungry predators.