A tiny tree-shrew that lives on alcoholic nectar could – pound for pound – drink the average human being under the table, scientists have found.

The BBC news reports that, “Malaysia’s pen-tailed tree-shrew waits until nightfall to binge on fermented nectar from the Bertram palm.”

The species could give insights into how human’s alcohol tolerance first evolved, the scientists claim. The team has published findings of its work in the journal, ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.’

Shrews are no lightweights when it comes to their alcohol intake, despite its small size. Nectar from the flower buds of the Bertram palm is fermented to a maximum alcohol content of up to 3.8 percent.

Each bud acts as a miniature brewery, containing a yeast community that transforms the nectar into a frothy beer-like beverage. Nevertheless, the animals that are about the size of a small rat, do not appear to get drunk at all, according to researchers.

As reported by the BBC, “Frank Wiens, from the University of Bayreuth in Germany, and colleagues confirmed the animal’s high alcohol consumption by analyzing the hair. Chemicals in the hair samples showed that on any given night, a tree shrew had a 36% chance of being drunk by human standards.”

To read the entire article from the BBC News, link here:

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