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Mar 4, 2025
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drinking-like-an-animal
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原来很多动物也会喝酒
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人与自然
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学生阅读
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‘Drinking’ like an animal
It’s not just humans who enjoy a ‘drink’
It sounds impossible, but many wild animals “drink” alcohol (酒精).
Animals like monkeys and fruit flies eat fermented (发酵的) fruits and nectar (花蜜). These have a type of alcohol called ethanol (乙醇). Scientists now think this happens more often than we thought.
Ethanol has been around for about 100 million years. Today, most fermented fruits have one percent to two percent alcohol. Some even have up to 10 percent.
Many animals have genes (基因) to break down ethanol. Some are better at it because they often eat fermented fruit and nectar.
But for other animals, it could be dangerous (危险的) because it can make them drunk. Some birds might crash (撞) into trees or buildings while flying.
However, there are also good things about ethanol. It gives animals energy (能量).
‘BIG DRINKERS’ IN NATURE
- Oriental hornet (东方胡蜂)
The Oriental hornet is the only animal that can have a lot of alcohol often. It does this without getting sick or having a shorter life.
- Pen-tailed treeshrew (笔尾树鼩)
The pen-tailed treeshrew has alcohol from plant nectar, but doesn’t get drunk. For its size, in a day, it can drink as much alcohol as a person drinking nine glasses of wine (葡萄酒)!
- Fruit bat (果蝠)
The fruit bat can also break down alcohol. In a study, scientists gave fruit bats sugar water with alcohol and tested them in a maze (迷宫). The bats flew just as well as those who didn’t have any alcohol.
- Author:Joel2561
- URL:http://article.yujiale.blog/article/drinking-like-an-animal
- Copyright:All articles in this blog, except for special statements, adopt BY-NC-SA agreement. Please indicate the source!
