Love on the Rocks: Male Fruit Flies Turn to Booze After Romantic Rejection

There are many natural drinkers, such as the Oriental Wasp, who can withstand alcohol content of 80 percent.

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Male fruit flies turn to alcohol when they are rejected as a mate. On the other hand, females of related species of fruit flies are less picky about mates and have sex with more males after being intoxicated. [사진= 게티이미지뱅크]

“The spider monkeys of the Americas did not even look at brandy after they got drunk on it. In that respect, this monkey was wiser than many people.”

This is what Charles Darwin revealed in ‘The Origin of Man’ (1871). While explaining the similarities between humans and monkeys, he pointed out that monkeys may drink alcohol once in a while, but they never drink again because they like it. This developed into the hypothesis that among animals, only humans drink alcohol.

But alcohol occurs naturally in almost every ecosystem on Earth, and most animals that eat fruit and flower nectar consume alcohol on a regular basis, a new study suggests. This is what the British Guardian reported based on a paper by British, Canadian, and American researchers published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution on the 30th of last month (local time).

Many animals have evolved to tolerate a single drink and consume only the calories from the alcohol. Most people cannot handle the effects of alcohol. However, some species appear to have evolved to protect themselves from alcohol consumption.

After combing through research papers on animals and alcohol, the researchers discovered a variety of species that have adapted and accepted ethanol in their diets, typically through fermented fruit, tree sap and honey, adding, “There is growing evidence that humans are not the only drinkers.” He said. Anna Bowland, an ecology researcher at the University of Exeter in the UK and lead author of the paper, said, “It is time to move away from the anthropocentric view that only humans use alcohol,” adding, “In fact, ethanol is quite abundant in the natural world.”

Ethanol became abundant on Earth about 100 million years ago, when flowering plants began producing sweet fruits and honey capable of yeast fermentation. The ethanol content (ABV/alcohol content) is generally low at 1-2%, but in the case of ripe coconut fruits, it can reach up to 10%.

In southeastern Guinea, West Africa, a wild chimpanzee was caught on camera gorging on raffia palm sap. Additionally, spider monkeys living in Panama, Central America, eat mombin, a yellow tropical fruit containing ethanol, which has been found to contain 1 to 2.5% alcohol.

Another problem is that alcohol consumption leads to drunkenness. There are countless cases of drunken animals, from elephants and baboons who got drunk while eating marula fruit, a large tropical fruit, in Botswana, South Africa, to moose (elk) whose head got stuck in a tree while chewing fermented apples in Sweden. However, the alcohol content of these animals or fruits has never been measured.

There are many animals that have a high tolerance for alcohol. Brush-tailed tree shrews native to Southeast Asia boast “enormous ethanol consumption,” but have not been found to be intoxicated. “It is unclear how these tree shrews will behave when intoxicated,” the researchers said.

Animals that regularly consume fermented foods metabolize alcohol quickly and tend to avoid its worst effects. However, animals that are not exposed to ethanol frequently may suffer damage. After examining the Cedar waxwings that died after crashing into fences and other structures, it was found that they died accidentally while flying under the influence of alcohol after eating ripe fruit from the Brazilian pepper tree, an evergreen broadleaf tree. “In an environment where there is a struggle for survival, drinking alcohol is not helpful,” Bowland said.

Alcohol’s most pronounced effects are found on insects. Male fruit flies turn to alcohol when they are rejected as a mate. On the other hand, females of related species of fruit flies are less picky about mates and have sex with more males after being intoxicated. Fruit flies also protect themselves from parasites by laying eggs on food rich in ethanol.

Earlier this month, researchers led by Professor Eran Levin of Tel Aviv University in Israel discovered that Oriental wasps native to the Middle East may be the only animals that can consume unlimited amounts of alcohol without any side effects. Dr. Sofia Buccipti, the lead author of the paper, said, “Oriental wasps do not die or show abnormal behavior even when ingesting an ethanol solution with an alcohol content of 80 percent.”

Matthew Carrigan (anatomy and physiology) at the University of Central Florida (CF), a member of the research team, said, “Except for fruit flies, Madagascar finger monkeys (ai-aye), and sloth loris (which lives in Southeast Asia), we don’t know whether any animal prefers ethanol-containing foods. “It is unclear,” he said. “The next step is to conduct research to test whether animals in the wild prefer foods containing ethanol.”

You can check the paper at the following link (

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