サルはアルコールを含む果物をよく食べることから、私たちの酒への嗜好が明らかになった(Monkeys often eat fruit containing alcohol, shedding light on our taste for booze)

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2022-03-30   カリフォルニア大学バークレー校(UCB)

black and red spider monkey eating fruit in a tree
(Photo by Victoria Weaver/CSUN)

パナマのクロコダイル猿の新しい研究によると、彼らは十分に熟して発酵し、2%ものエタノールを含む果物を探して食べていることがわかった。この結果は、人間がアルコールを飲むようになったのは、古代の祖先が発酵しているが栄養価の高い果物を好んで食べたことに端を発しているのではないか、という説に光を当てている。

<関連情報>

放し飼いクモザル(Ateles geoffroyi)のエタノール食餌摂取量について Dietary ethanol ingestion by free-ranging spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi)

Christina J. Campbell,Aleksey Maro,Victoria Weaver and Robert Dudley

THA ROYAL SOCIETY Published:16 March 2022 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211729

Abstract

Ethanol within ripe and over-ripe fruit is produced naturally through the metabolic activity of fermentative yeasts. As a consequence, frugivorous animals may chronically consume ethanol as part of their routine diet, although direct measurements of such exposure are lacking. Here, we present data on ethanol concentrations within fruits of Spondias mombin (Anacardiaceae) that are eaten by black-handed spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Of collected fruits that were partially consumed and then dropped by foraging monkeys, pulp-ethanol content was typically in the range of 1–2%; the percentage of pulp for consumed fruits was not significantly correlated with the ethanol concentration of the pulp remaining within each fruit. Urine samples from foraging spider monkeys were also evaluated for the ethanol metabolites ethyl glucuronide and ethyl sulfate; five of six samples tested positive for both compounds. In aggregate, these data indicate natural exposure to fruit-associated ethanol in a wild primate species.

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生物環境工学
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